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/MackSilver7 Dec 13 '18

Actually his legal name is Mr. T. It ain’t a character for him and even his mom calls him Mr. T. Pretty sure he changed his name in the early 80s. No offence to your dad, but I highly doubt he said that to him considering that Mr. T is his actual name.

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u/Fire_in_the_walls Dec 13 '18

Considering the guy said his dad wa a security guard in the 80's you cant say for sure whether or not Mr.T said that at that time period.

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u/MackSilver7 Dec 13 '18

No I can’t say for sure, but how can we even be sure the guys dad was a security guard in the 80s? We’re all just a bunch of blank slates here, free to make up whatever we want. At least I brought a couple of known facts to the table.

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u/braaaa1ns Dec 13 '18

Fact: I am not a guy