Originally Posted: June, 4, 2020
By Mark D. McCoy, an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University and expert in the application of geospatial technology in archaeology.
At Sunday family dinner, the conversation turned to the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests. It is not unusual for my wife and me to talk to our 12-year-old daughter about the news and this kind of tragedy has come up again and again. My wife filled us in on some of the heart wrenching and terrifying details that we had missed. Then, while our toddler busied himself pushing around the food on his plate, our daughter pointed out something that we had missed. Mr. Floyd died while being arrested for allegedly spending a counterfeit $20 bill.
I was arrested for spending a counterfeit $20 bill in 1994. It is not a secret. Many times I have told the story of unknowingly handing over a fake bill to a store clerk and ending up in the back of a police cruiser. What makes it an entertaining story is that it happened to an 18-year-old goodie two shoes: Eagle scout, former altar boy, and honor roll student. What terrible luck, to be out minding my own business, and then out of nowhere, thrown in jail for a night.
Twenty-six-years later, at our dinner table, I sat with the coincidence. I didn’t know George Floyd. I would come to find out that we are, or were, about the same age. Like me, he had two kids. But it was that small detail of the $20 bill that weighed on me. The next morning, I couldn’t shake it. I couldn’t imagine telling my story again with it being about only me. An editorial by President Obama popped up on Twitter with “some thoughts on how to make this moment a real turning point to bring real change” and “sustain the momentum.” That’s when I decided to tweet this:
I don’t tweet often and when I have it has been only about my research or the work of other archaeologists. Nothing personal. I had fewer than 150 followers. With this tweet I’d said aloud what I’d been feeling. After that small emotional release, it was Monday, so I went back to working. Then my phone started to buzz. People outside my circle were liking and retweeting. Within a couple of hours, I had to switch my phone to Do Not Disturb because of the back-to-back alerts. By dinner, it had reached hundreds of thousands of people. The next morning it passed 1 million likes and I was getting contacted by the press. READ MORE