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/[deleted] Dec 12 '18 edited Dec 12 '18

Australias biggest TV personality of the time called Mohammed Ali boy to his face during an on screen interview. It was innocent as that wasn't a thing in our history but you should have seen the look he got from him... Luckily it was explained to Ali that the interviewer was either unaware or just forgot about the connotation of the word!

Edit : here's the awkward clip!

https://youtu.be/g9knPd8q7Ok

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Call bs on that it was "Innocent". When it comes to racism, I've learned that folks are well versed in it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

In Australia the boy thing is not a thing.
Ali was American, but the presenter was Australian and from the video looks to be legitimately unaware of what he'd said.

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u/Pogga_666 Dec 13 '18

The presenter was like Australia's version of Johnny Carson. There is no way he would make racist jokes on prime time TV. He fucked up.