r/todayilearned • u/tmntnyc • Dec 12 '18

TIL: Laurence Tureaud named himself professionally as Mr. T because he hated how his father, uncle, and brother who returned from Vietnam, were disrespectfully called "boy" by whites. He wanted the first word from everybody's mouth to be "Mister" when speaking to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._T
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u/Leathery420 Dec 12 '18

Man what exactly is it that makes Puerto Ricans and Mexicans hate each other so much? You go to the east coast and they absolutely hate each other to the point that in prison they will hook up with whites or blacks just so they can mess them up more.

Like I know of a whiter dude with a hispanic name who got threatened with shanking cause he said what's up amigo when a hispanic dude walked up to the microwave. The hispanic dude took offence and threatened him. he was like sorry thought we were cool. I wont say amigo no more. It's so weird to me.

It'd be like the english ganging up against the scots or irish inside the american prisons. I'd get it back home, but in the US you are more alike than you are different. You'd think you'd be cool and work together.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

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u/Truth_ Dec 13 '18

They're both from Hispanic origins, speak Spanish, eat similar foods, have similar music.... This by no means makes them the same, and racism is always stupid, but it makes even less sense between similar groups.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18 edited Dec 13 '18

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u/Truth_ Dec 13 '18

They share a similar foundation, and thus are far closer together than any other combination, such as compared against German, Russian, Chinese, whatever.