1980s catch phrase revisited
It’s not what you think.
There are so many 80s catch phrases out there that I probably can’t list them all. Mr. T of course dominated the 80s, whether from his wrestling days (which I didn’t watch), his time on the A-Team (best show ever — until you rewatch it again and think ouch, I liked that?), or the classic Rocky 111. At the time, I thought he was just a wild, over the top, entertaining wrestler and former bouncer turned actor.
I was wrong.
When I was writing the Heart of a Runaway Girl, I knew that I wanted to reference his catch phrase, “I pity the fool.” Having Lisa as a character in my book, the 16 year old niece of Mabel, allowed me to have her dialled into 80s teen culture. As a result, a lot of my 80s references stem from Lisa’s conversations. For me, it was just a fun, cool reference that I thought people would smile at and fondly remember.
I didn’t really know much else about Mr. T, other than that he played a bad ass. It was only when I was doing a little research for my book that I saw a different side to Lawrence Tureaud, aka “Mr. T.” If you go to his wikipedia page, you will find a quote of why he called himself Mr. T. It wasn’t what I thought.
He chose the name, Mr. T, because of the racism he and his family experienced. The men in his family were all called “boys” by white folks. He took on the Mr. T moniker to make sure he wasn’t called “boy” again. His inspiration didn’t stop there. He was proud of his heritage and had adopted his Mohawk hairstyle because he once saw an image of a Mandinka warrior with such a hairstyle in a National Geographic Magazine — the Mandinka people also come into another 80s cultural reference in my book, of which I will discuss on another post.
This little bit of new knowledge about the man opened my eyes a little more. At the time, I saw him purely as an entertaining actor, and I had blindly missed the fact that a hurt, proud man saw his appearance not only as a shield but also a statement. It forced me to reflect on my opinions and actions throughout the 80s and whether I was as innocent as I thought — like Mabel did in the book with the scene with Hector in my book.
I wish I would have known more about this man’s story and why he chose to dress as he did.
I wish I knew more about the effects of racism on him that he experienced (and other’s experience today).
But I do now.
It takes the 80s shine off of things somewhat and reminds us that we have a job to do to educate ourselves about our peers. There is more to the 80s story than simply the hair, the clothes and the attitude. It’s easy to put celebrities on a pedestal and to ascribe our hopes, dreams and fears to them. But they are real people behind the masks. Sometimes the masks are just shields and sometimes they are statements and in Mr. Tureaud’s case, apparently both. I am a little humbled that I didn’t know his back story. I’m glad I know a little bit more now.
In my story, I let Lisa be like I was — unaware of his pride and his pain. It wouldn’t have fit the time. But the 21st century is a little different, and its good to reflect on what we thought was innocent but maybe isn’t.
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