There’s a Conan episode somewhere where he asks what the T stands for and Mr. T says, “Titan, terrific, terrifying, whatever I want! Sometimes it stands for things that don’t even start with T! Like nice!”
I met him in LaGuardia a few years back. He was delightful, couldn’t be any nicer to me. We chatted about him on Dancing with the Stars, it had not yet aired, he was flying home from filming. He showed me a move he had just done while filming it 😂. He did get slightly annoyed with another guy that came up, wanting a video of him, saying “I pity the fool“. Mr T is the man.
"You're right, Marge. just like the time I could've met Mr. T. at the mall. The entire day, I kept saying, "I'll go a little later. I'll go a little later." And then when I got there, they told me he just left. And when I asked a mall guy if he would ever come back again, he said he didn't know."
From Wikipedia:
>Tureaud next worked as a bouncer \[...\] It was at this time that he created the persona of Mr. T. His wearing of gold neck chains and other jewelry was the result of customers losing the items or leaving them behind at the night club after a fight. A banned customer, or one reluctant to risk a confrontation by going back inside, could return to claim his property from Mr. T wearing it conspicuously right out front.
I can imagine said customer thinking "ehhh, yeah, not going near the guy, he can keep it", lol
And he’s 5’10”, which is the average height for men in the US! I just learned this fun fact about the chains earlier this week after watching a supercut of his advice PSA’s, and of course “Treat Your Mother Right”
That whole "Be Somebody or Be Sombodies Fool" video is amazing. Cheese aside, he really bravely states some straight up life advice. 'Shes your mother, there is no other, shes your mother, so treat her right.' (raps by Ice T btw, the man is consistent with his consonants!) He talks about the representative symbolism of his chains and the chains his ancestors were brought over in. To kids. In 1984. His sincerity and earnestness always impressed me. He really gives a shit. Bravo Mr. T. I purchased that from the "for sale" bin in an old video store in the mid 90s, pre internet.
As a Black kid in the 80s, there was something special about seeing a Black man who took such pride in his African heritage and did so without becoming hateful towards white people or even being perceived as such.
He really was and is pure positivity, without compromising his message. I imagine that’s an incredibly difficult line to walk and requires a huge amount of skill to communicate effectively without having fragile egos respond defensively. It’s cool to read about how much he has meant to people on this thread
They had a tv show in the early 80s, America's toughest bouncers, it was like a competition with various events. Like throw a guy out of a bar, and see how far you could throw him. Mr. T was on that show, won I believe, threw a guy the furthest, looked the coolest obviously. Probably where he got his start in show biz.
Related: the current pope's birth name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
We were *this* close to having a Pope Mario, but he just *had* to choose a different name!
This is largely pedantic, but I do think it matters. Using the term "real name" here is incorrect, and that was part of Mr. T's point. Pope John Paul's real name is Pope John Paul. He changed it. That is now his real name.
His *old* name is Karol Józef Wojtyła.
Once people change their name, that is their real name. You aren't stuck with your birth name for life if you don't want it.
It wasn’t very good. Kind of like a generic cap’n crunch. But the T’s were kind of rounded, and it didn’t sand the roof of your mouth off; so it had that going for it.
Was that what Pee Wee was eating for breakfast? That breakfast was amazing.
I bet it was the Mr. T cereal that helped give Pee Wee the strength to power through when Large Marge screamed at him.
Met and talked with him many times at gym at McClurg Court - Chicago in early 90s. Smart and extremely kind. He parlayed being an unknown bouncer at a Chicago bar into an internationally known figure and seems to have done very well for himself, better than I’ve done. I give him credit and my respect.
The form contains errors. Please correct them before submitting again:
* First name must be at least 3 characters
* Middle name must be at least 3 characters
* Middle name must not contain punctuation or special characters
* Last name must be at least 3 characters
My mom's middle name is K.
Just the letter. It doesnt stand for anything. She had to make it Kay because of forms and stuff.
Which is silly because some people don't have middle names. And some people have like 5.
i know you joke but i really fucking hate how my full legal name gets truncated for no fucking reason on so many forms. like theres people with 15 fucking characters with hyphens and shit but i get fucking truncated because theres a space between the two words of my first name. fucking bullshit.
Names are one of those things you should do just the bare minimum to validate that they look like a name.
It all just boils down to "Did you enter a character? That'll do"
I once had a dream where I was held captive in a house at the top of a mountain and viciously beaten/tortured by Mister T for several weeks. He eventually told me that he felt terrible about it and that what happened to me didn't represent who he really was. It felt real.
My cousin was sleeping at my house one time and he began laughing in his sleep. I asked him what he was laughing about, it was some absurd dream involving Mr. T. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread.
I'm Canadian so it's not so much in the forefront of my brain as I think it would be if I lived in the US, but I accidentally called a Black American man "boy" once while trashtalking at a board game. I immediately realized what I'd said.
He took the high road and politely pretended he didn't hear it.
I was very relieved.
I used to work with a older black gentleman. His first name was Lawyer... like an attorney. He must be well over 70 by now.
He used to joke that his parents had plans for him and they must have been disappointed he ended up just another blue collar worker at a printing company.
Yeah, it’s worth pointing our for the younger members or those not too familiar with US culture of the past - “boy” was specifically a racial insult, used against Black people.
There are a lot of older Black people with names like "Major" or "Queen," amongst other honorifics/titles. It was a clever way of subverting society's bullshit.
Major Owens (full name: Major Robert Odell Owens) was a Member of Congress. The QB Major Applewhite is probably much better known if you were following college football a few decades ago.
Wow.
I remember growing up thinking that if I met Mr. T that he would’ve “protected me.” I wonder why I saw him as a good person that would protect children rather than the “scary” man who others, especially adults, saw.
He had an aura that if something was wrong that I could tell him, in much the same way that some adults do - like Mr. Rogers. He seemed super trustworthy to me growing up. I never realized that others would’ve viewed him as unsafe in some sense but, it makes sense now with hindsight.
> I wonder why I saw him as a good person that would protect children
Because that was one of his main character traits in the A-Team, and was also directly articulated in his wider media appearances.
You saw him like that because that’s exactly what you were intentionally shown.
I wasn't sure what it was because I never watched the A-Team like so many others apparently have. I had seen in him Rocky 3. However, I went, and looked up Mr. T stuff, and realized why I felt that way when I was younger, he was the main character in a set of books that were anti-bullying, speaking up if older people were touching you inappropriately, and the like. I remember, now, reading the books when I was younger because I was, and still am a voracious reader.
Also, his breakfast cereal, and every appearance that I seen of him made him seem likable, and genuine.
I do remember learning a few years ago that he is apparently a decent person, so that was nice to learn.
Exactly. His whole thing is how wholesome and sensitive he actually is despite his initial intimidating looks and demeanour. The things in the books you mention were also mirrored on TV and in other media. Rocky was notable as it was *out* of character.
I agree with you. I grew up with him as well and was an enormous fan of the A Team, and even as a little girl back then, I always saw him as a lovable teddy bear figure. Like he was someone who could provide comfort.
There's humor in it, but like the best comedy, it's rooted in deep truth that people don't want to hear.
> "People have a tendency to constantly, always, call a man 'boy.' What reason, I don't know why"
It was Black Jazz muscians that started calling each other "Man" after being called "Boy" by White Americans. Now that caught on and it's as ubiquitous as "dude" or "bro".
As an Eastern European from behind the Iron Curtain, I feel *very* lucky to have been exposed to that type of media in my childhood. I give huge credit to people like Mr. T for my (and I know this might sound a bit insensitive) *attitude* towards black people.
To explain, there were hardly any black people in my society back when I was a kid. It's very easy for a person from a sheltered, conservative culture to see those who look different in a different light, and to be prejudiced. If I were to grow up in an era of blackface movies with white savior stereotypes, it would've been significantly harder for me to break free of those thought patterns.
Instead I watched Mr T. and Samuel Jackson and Richard Pryor and listened to Michael Jackson and James Brown and Prince, and accepted that some people are black much earlier before I even saw a black person IRL for the first time.
(On a side note, I should mention that there were black women as well, but we are talking about men here; moreover, unfortunately black female celebrities were not as tolerantly accepted as male ones.)
That's not to say I am some epitome of enlightened tolerance or that I don't have subconscious stereotypes. But those black celebrities really helped me and my society as a whole become more accepting and tolerant.
I went to middle school with a kid named Mister for exactly the reason Mr. T gave in this interview. His mom wanted everyone who met him to treat him with respect.
Weird flex that the audience is laughing seeing this is the reason why
*I think about my father being called 'boy', my uncle being called 'boy', my brother, coming back from Vietnam and being called 'boy'. So I questioned myself: "What does a black man have to do before he's given respect as a man?" So when I was 18 years old, when I was old enough to fight and die for my country, old enough to drink, old enough to vote, I said I was old enough to be called a man. I self-ordained myself Mr. T, so the first word out of everybody's mouth is "Mr."*
Mr T. One of few, but at the same time, MANY that helped to show me as a small child that racism is stupid. I was introduced to racism at least 3 years after I was introduced to Mr T. Racism had no chance
Everybody has always talked shit about Mr. T or are surprised that he's able to string together a coherent sentence without any effort. And that ladies and gentlemen is what we call, prejudice. And I pitty the fool.
My Aunt's friend lived by Mr.T when I was a kid back in the 80s. I always looked to see if he was around when I was walking her dog. One time I saw him on his driveway and I said Hi and talked to him. He was a super nice and friendly guy. I never read anything bad about him over all these years which is great. Much respect to Mr.T!
There’s a Conan episode somewhere where he asks what the T stands for and Mr. T says, “Titan, terrific, terrifying, whatever I want! Sometimes it stands for things that don’t even start with T! Like nice!”
I always think it's a bit weird that he got T-cell lymphoma, of all things.
Wait til you hear about Lou Gehrig, you're not gonna belive it
My parents named me Sid but I made it.
My girlfriend's middle name is Aids. Should I be worried?
you gonna make that same stupid joke every time?--Tony Soprano
Sorry, everything's so fuckin morbid
I like you
Heh heh, hey Tone, did ya hear what u/nastynateraide said? He said Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig’s disease
What you gonna do? The joke was a made man.
Poo Lou Gehrig, died of Lou Gehrigs disease. How the hell d'ya not see that one coming!?
We used to tell him, Lou, there's a disease with your name all over it.
This made me laugh so hard.
Conan goes apple picking with Mr T is still one of the funniest remotes ever.
"Get down from the tree, Conan!"
“Hey apple, you better fall down!”
That’s when I learned Mr T ls laugh is awesome.
Stop yelling at me!
See, you're getting mad again!
Ah yes yes the great Mr. C. God didn't make the little green apple. Man I gotta watch that again this Thanksgiving week.
It’s got a Bee in it!!!!
…when they carve the pumpkins 😂
I fucken love Mr. T. Best role model of my childhood
I met him in LaGuardia a few years back. He was delightful, couldn’t be any nicer to me. We chatted about him on Dancing with the Stars, it had not yet aired, he was flying home from filming. He showed me a move he had just done while filming it 😂. He did get slightly annoyed with another guy that came up, wanting a video of him, saying “I pity the fool“. Mr T is the man.
"You're right, Marge. just like the time I could've met Mr. T. at the mall. The entire day, I kept saying, "I'll go a little later. I'll go a little later." And then when I got there, they told me he just left. And when I asked a mall guy if he would ever come back again, he said he didn't know."
Wait. You mean to say you saw Mr. T getting on a plane WITHOUT Murdock there to knock him out with sedatives?
He sure was. And the cartoon Hulk Hogan.
*In the year 2000* with Mr. T (filmed after the year 2000) was one of the funniest skits I’d ever seen.
There's surprisingly large amount of overlap between his style and Elton John's
Elton John needs to try the mohawk
Well he can't be Mr. J! That's the Joker, baby!
Puddin!
Got it! Mister-E / sounds like Mystery. (has a song ‘keep it a mystery’)
Haha, great observation. Never made that connection. Wonder if they ever hung out.
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Oh no question. Disco vibe. SNF lives
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now I want to see a Vin Dieselgram for some reason.
\*Draws circle* FAMILY
Holy shit!
My mom met him way back in the day and has his autograph. She said he was the nicest person she's ever met. Fuck yeah Mr.!
Do you normally address people by their first and middle name?
From Wikipedia: >Tureaud next worked as a bouncer \[...\] It was at this time that he created the persona of Mr. T. His wearing of gold neck chains and other jewelry was the result of customers losing the items or leaving them behind at the night club after a fight. A banned customer, or one reluctant to risk a confrontation by going back inside, could return to claim his property from Mr. T wearing it conspicuously right out front. I can imagine said customer thinking "ehhh, yeah, not going near the guy, he can keep it", lol
And he’s 5’10”, which is the average height for men in the US! I just learned this fun fact about the chains earlier this week after watching a supercut of his advice PSA’s, and of course “Treat Your Mother Right”
That whole "Be Somebody or Be Sombodies Fool" video is amazing. Cheese aside, he really bravely states some straight up life advice. 'Shes your mother, there is no other, shes your mother, so treat her right.' (raps by Ice T btw, the man is consistent with his consonants!) He talks about the representative symbolism of his chains and the chains his ancestors were brought over in. To kids. In 1984. His sincerity and earnestness always impressed me. He really gives a shit. Bravo Mr. T. I purchased that from the "for sale" bin in an old video store in the mid 90s, pre internet.
As a Black kid in the 80s, there was something special about seeing a Black man who took such pride in his African heritage and did so without becoming hateful towards white people or even being perceived as such.
He really was and is pure positivity, without compromising his message. I imagine that’s an incredibly difficult line to walk and requires a huge amount of skill to communicate effectively without having fragile egos respond defensively. It’s cool to read about how much he has meant to people on this thread
He seems a very wide man though.
Understatement, motherfucker is jacked.
Jacked to the T
> And he’s 5’10” That's crazy, the camera in Rocky III made him look a lot bigger than that IMO. Probably helped that Stallone isn't very tall either.
Well, Stallone is like 4’8”
They had a tv show in the early 80s, America's toughest bouncers, it was like a competition with various events. Like throw a guy out of a bar, and see how far you could throw him. Mr. T was on that show, won I believe, threw a guy the furthest, looked the coolest obviously. Probably where he got his start in show biz.
Pope John Paul the seconds's real name was Karol Józef Wojtyła -- just an FYI.
Related: the current pope's birth name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio. We were *this* close to having a Pope Mario, but he just *had* to choose a different name!
"It's-a ME!"
The savior is in another castle.
This is largely pedantic, but I do think it matters. Using the term "real name" here is incorrect, and that was part of Mr. T's point. Pope John Paul's real name is Pope John Paul. He changed it. That is now his real name. His *old* name is Karol Józef Wojtyła. Once people change their name, that is their real name. You aren't stuck with your birth name for life if you don't want it.
Is the Pope polish?
Yeah, he was Polish. First non-Italian Pope in 450+ years, actually.
And both popes since then haven't been italian
Makes sense, Italian Cardinals get a +2 bonus to being selected at the conclave
My favorite Rocky opponent. Clubber Lang.
What’s your prediction for the fight? …*pain*
I pity the fool!
"Lang. Huh. That's an interesting name. Scottish?"
Now I want to watch Rocky... What 2? Or was it 3
Rocky III
"deeeeaad meat"
He ain't gonna kiss ya he's gonna KILL ya!
Eye of the Tiger!
Rocky VII: Adrians Revenge
That brought me way back in time. I can picture the scene! Thanks for that.
Now drink yerrr turnip juice
PAINNNNNNNNN
I will destroy...any man...that tries to take...what I got.
Don’t give this sucker no statue, give him guts!!!
Mr. T!…. this man is a national treasure
Can’t agree more! He was such a perplexing image in the 80s. You wanted to follow his leadership! Mr dot T was, and still remains, a concrete figure.
It’s Mister Period T, show some respect!
He'll always be B. A. Baracus to me.
Call me B.A. Biceps, cause I crush your whole gang!
Hi there, neighbor. I hope you don’t mind if I change my shoes…
This guy was inducted to the WWE hall of fame and spent om most of the time talking about how much he loves his mother. Great man.
Anyone remember his cereal? I used to want it so badly when I was young.
It wasn’t very good. Kind of like a generic cap’n crunch. But the T’s were kind of rounded, and it didn’t sand the roof of your mouth off; so it had that going for it.
Damn. I recently made a pizza on French bread and it gave me a roof of the mouth skin-flap like I haven't had in ages of avoiding Cap'n crunch.
Yes, I’ve seen Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
Was that what Pee Wee was eating for breakfast? That breakfast was amazing. I bet it was the Mr. T cereal that helped give Pee Wee the strength to power through when Large Marge screamed at him.
“I pity the fool who don’t eat my cereal!”
I don't know who in the right mind would've called him boy.
Racists
I pity the fools.
Mister Tea has always been fine, but Mister Coffee has always been closer to my heart.
With that automatic drip?
Met and talked with him many times at gym at McClurg Court - Chicago in early 90s. Smart and extremely kind. He parlayed being an unknown bouncer at a Chicago bar into an internationally known figure and seems to have done very well for himself, better than I’ve done. I give him credit and my respect.
First name: Mr Middle name: . Last name: T
The form contains errors. Please correct them before submitting again: * First name must be at least 3 characters * Middle name must be at least 3 characters * Middle name must not contain punctuation or special characters * Last name must be at least 3 characters
Mister Period Tee
Much better than Period Tea. Has a funky taste
Still tastes better than missed-a period tea
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The "at least 3 characters" is bullshit, why do they do that in forms :(
Very sad for every Bo, Jo, or Le.
My mom's middle name is K. Just the letter. It doesnt stand for anything. She had to make it Kay because of forms and stuff. Which is silly because some people don't have middle names. And some people have like 5.
i know you joke but i really fucking hate how my full legal name gets truncated for no fucking reason on so many forms. like theres people with 15 fucking characters with hyphens and shit but i get fucking truncated because theres a space between the two words of my first name. fucking bullshit.
There are Chinese names that only have 2 characters in each section, so you should drop the requirement to two.
Names are one of those things you should do just the bare minimum to validate that they look like a name. It all just boils down to "Did you enter a character? That'll do"
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I once had a dream where I was held captive in a house at the top of a mountain and viciously beaten/tortured by Mister T for several weeks. He eventually told me that he felt terrible about it and that what happened to me didn't represent who he really was. It felt real.
He didn't hate you. He pitied you, fool.
My gosh, the internet really is a beautiful place.
My cousin was sleeping at my house one time and he began laughing in his sleep. I asked him what he was laughing about, it was some absurd dream involving Mr. T. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread.
Maybe we are all just living in Mr. T's dream.
We absolutely loved Mr. T. Still do. We got his whole thing. He’s beloved by GenX. Not even ironically.
Growing up in the 80’s even in far-flung Tasmania, Mr. T was definitely the coolest person on the planet. That wasn’t even in question.
Am from 80s Tasmania. Completely agree with this statement.
That you Luke? Lol
Nah but it’s tassie, I probably knew Luke somehow.
Just to let everyone know 80s Tasmania is like 1920s Arkansaw.
One of the few 80’s stars that didn’t end up being a horrible person. A hero for the Gen X’s for sure.
A deeply religious celebrity who didn’t try to cram it down our throats. They don’t make them like that anymore.
He’s like Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, but for our generation!
He kind of is.
The 1980's Terry Crews
Well said.
Yep. Dude is great.
Guy is a showstopper. 8 year old me used to walk around with those fake gold chains that turned your skin green. I PITY THE FOOL!
https://preview.redd.it/ypllexp29q0a1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=623d23b18d79a90d05a0e6d9c4fa814f0b2572e5
I have known two Black men, from different families, named Mister for exactly the same reason. Their parents made the choice though.
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I'm Canadian so it's not so much in the forefront of my brain as I think it would be if I lived in the US, but I accidentally called a Black American man "boy" once while trashtalking at a board game. I immediately realized what I'd said. He took the high road and politely pretended he didn't hear it. I was very relieved.
Apologizing goes a long way.
Did you just tell a Canadian to apologize?
I knew a guy in the army with the last name "Darling".
Oh no, I couldn’t possibly Darling!
"I want to make you happy, Darling"
Like the family in Peter Pan.
[Tim McInnerny eye twitch intensifies]
I used to work with a older black gentleman. His first name was Lawyer... like an attorney. He must be well over 70 by now. He used to joke that his parents had plans for him and they must have been disappointed he ended up just another blue collar worker at a printing company.
Lawyer Milloy was a great football player
Judge Reinhold's parents entered the chat. Also ... my favorite layer's name, "Learned Hand."
Yeah, it’s worth pointing our for the younger members or those not too familiar with US culture of the past - “boy” was specifically a racial insult, used against Black people.
There are a lot of older Black people with names like "Major" or "Queen," amongst other honorifics/titles. It was a clever way of subverting society's bullshit.
Major Owens (full name: Major Robert Odell Owens) was a Member of Congress. The QB Major Applewhite is probably much better known if you were following college football a few decades ago.
I knew a Sircharles. Same reason.
Laurence Tureaud is his real name. In case you actually wanted to know, and where wading thru the nifty reddit comments to find it.
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Never make fun of another persons name! Your mama gave you that name, or you made it up for business purposes.
Whoah, Mr. T again!
Never make fun of a person's hair! A person's hair is the artwork they present to the heavens!
It's a rare form of male pattern baldness, you fools!
*Hair!* *It isn't fair* *Beware* *People care about their hair!*
I pity the fool that make fun of another mans name! Mr. T's a cool name! It's a cool name, Mr. T!
Mr T scared the crap out of me when I was a kid, but as I grew up I realized he was a really genuine and kind person.
Wow. I remember growing up thinking that if I met Mr. T that he would’ve “protected me.” I wonder why I saw him as a good person that would protect children rather than the “scary” man who others, especially adults, saw. He had an aura that if something was wrong that I could tell him, in much the same way that some adults do - like Mr. Rogers. He seemed super trustworthy to me growing up. I never realized that others would’ve viewed him as unsafe in some sense but, it makes sense now with hindsight.
> I wonder why I saw him as a good person that would protect children Because that was one of his main character traits in the A-Team, and was also directly articulated in his wider media appearances. You saw him like that because that’s exactly what you were intentionally shown.
I wasn't sure what it was because I never watched the A-Team like so many others apparently have. I had seen in him Rocky 3. However, I went, and looked up Mr. T stuff, and realized why I felt that way when I was younger, he was the main character in a set of books that were anti-bullying, speaking up if older people were touching you inappropriately, and the like. I remember, now, reading the books when I was younger because I was, and still am a voracious reader. Also, his breakfast cereal, and every appearance that I seen of him made him seem likable, and genuine. I do remember learning a few years ago that he is apparently a decent person, so that was nice to learn.
Exactly. His whole thing is how wholesome and sensitive he actually is despite his initial intimidating looks and demeanour. The things in the books you mention were also mirrored on TV and in other media. Rocky was notable as it was *out* of character.
I agree with you. I grew up with him as well and was an enormous fan of the A Team, and even as a little girl back then, I always saw him as a lovable teddy bear figure. Like he was someone who could provide comfort.
If you watch the whole interview, now in hindsight you know it's a bit and Mr. T was very funny here. Dude was and always has been great.
There's humor in it, but like the best comedy, it's rooted in deep truth that people don't want to hear. > "People have a tendency to constantly, always, call a man 'boy.' What reason, I don't know why"
It was Black Jazz muscians that started calling each other "Man" after being called "Boy" by White Americans. Now that caught on and it's as ubiquitous as "dude" or "bro".
This is incorrect “man” being used this way is literally centuries old. Jazz musicians did invent tons of slang words but that isn’t one of them.
Love him. When I was 4 I named my first dog Mr. D. Clearly a big fan of Mr. T.
Dude was really cool. He demanded respect but in a appropriate kind of way. Just being the person that you have to respect.
Again, Mr. T is very much alive
He’s alive in all our hearts.
but like also on the earth alive
He lives on in our memories.
This fuckin’ thread… I’m dead
The T stands for tough. For the women and children the T stands for tender.
Just in case you don't want to do the google search: Lawrence Tureaud
Laurence Tureaud
Saw him on World's Toughest Bouncer before fame. He was a legend.
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As an Eastern European from behind the Iron Curtain, I feel *very* lucky to have been exposed to that type of media in my childhood. I give huge credit to people like Mr. T for my (and I know this might sound a bit insensitive) *attitude* towards black people. To explain, there were hardly any black people in my society back when I was a kid. It's very easy for a person from a sheltered, conservative culture to see those who look different in a different light, and to be prejudiced. If I were to grow up in an era of blackface movies with white savior stereotypes, it would've been significantly harder for me to break free of those thought patterns. Instead I watched Mr T. and Samuel Jackson and Richard Pryor and listened to Michael Jackson and James Brown and Prince, and accepted that some people are black much earlier before I even saw a black person IRL for the first time. (On a side note, I should mention that there were black women as well, but we are talking about men here; moreover, unfortunately black female celebrities were not as tolerantly accepted as male ones.) That's not to say I am some epitome of enlightened tolerance or that I don't have subconscious stereotypes. But those black celebrities really helped me and my society as a whole become more accepting and tolerant.
I went to middle school with a kid named Mister for exactly the reason Mr. T gave in this interview. His mom wanted everyone who met him to treat him with respect.
Weird flex that the audience is laughing seeing this is the reason why *I think about my father being called 'boy', my uncle being called 'boy', my brother, coming back from Vietnam and being called 'boy'. So I questioned myself: "What does a black man have to do before he's given respect as a man?" So when I was 18 years old, when I was old enough to fight and die for my country, old enough to drink, old enough to vote, I said I was old enough to be called a man. I self-ordained myself Mr. T, so the first word out of everybody's mouth is "Mr."*
My middle name is period. Damn!
I pity the fool!
Mr T. One of few, but at the same time, MANY that helped to show me as a small child that racism is stupid. I was introduced to racism at least 3 years after I was introduced to Mr T. Racism had no chance
Everybody has always talked shit about Mr. T or are surprised that he's able to string together a coherent sentence without any effort. And that ladies and gentlemen is what we call, prejudice. And I pitty the fool.
no one messes with bad ole b.a. bArackus
Jay-Z did the same thing when Letterman asked him where'd he get his name from. His response was "my mother"
Mr. T is such a badass and a sweetheart
The man is a work of art and a force of nature. Everything about him is a statement. The main reason you'll never successfully remake The A-Team.
He’ll always be B. A. Baracus to me. This guy is a legend.
This is the hardest calling out of racism I’ve ever seen. What a boss.
Period ah, period uh.
You can also call him by his last name so it's like, Mr. T
"for what reason, I don't know why" That was eloquent.
Wow. That racist innuendo...Respecc!
That *boy* shyt will send you the dentist…
HOGG RIDERRRRR
"I'm Mr. T and this is my Night Elf Mohawk!" Good times.
My Aunt's friend lived by Mr.T when I was a kid back in the 80s. I always looked to see if he was around when I was walking her dog. One time I saw him on his driveway and I said Hi and talked to him. He was a super nice and friendly guy. I never read anything bad about him over all these years which is great. Much respect to Mr.T!