“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 the 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

That's a sign of respect that my father didn't get, that my brother didn't get, that my mother didn't get.
Attributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I think about my father being called 'boy,' my uncle being called 'boy,' my brother, coming back from Vietnam and being…" by Mr. T?
Mr. T photo
Mr. T 58
American actor and retired professional wrestler 1952

Related quotes

Mark Twain photo

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant, I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Not found in Twain's works, this was attributed to him in Reader's Digest (September 1939): no prior attribution known. Mark Twain’s father died when Twain was eleven years old.
Disputed
Variant: When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

Ernest Hemingway photo
Janet Evanovich photo
Oscar Wilde photo
Vicente Guerrero photo

“Compañeros, this old man is my father. He has come to offer me rewards in the name of the Spaniards. I have always respected my father but my homeland comes first.”

Vicente Guerrero (1782–1831) leading revolutionary generals of the Mexican War of Independence and President of Mexico

1819; the Spaniards had sent Guerrero's father to plead for an end to Guererro's rebellion. http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/jtuck/jtvguerrero.html

William Wordsworth photo

“My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold, (1802); the last three lines of this form the introductory lines of the long Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood begun the next day.

Kamal Haasan photo

Related topics