How did she get it? Well, she's eight years old, and a Girl Scout. Like countless girls across the nation, she was busy selling cookies this Spring. Learning economics and team-building and communication skills and more.
And one day, someone bought several boxes of cookies and gave her a fake $20 bill.
We didn't realize it until later. If you haven't sold Girl Scout cookies before-- the parents buy cookies in advance, and then pay ourselves back as we make sales. Weeks ago, my wife went to deposit the money we collected, and happened to notice this bill. It didn't feel right. On closer inspection, even though much of the design is the same, you can see words that are different. It says "Motion Picture Use Purposes."
So we wrote it off as a loss. And I had the bill on my desk when I learned how George Floyd was killed.
You may know this: my daughter is Black. Her mother is Nigerian-American. Living in Texas-- let's be honest, living in the United States-- she is perceived differently than I was at her age.
And maybe at 8-years old, a shop owner wouldn't perceive her as a threat if she tried to buy candy or Pokémon cards with this counterfeit bill. Maybe.
But what if she was a little older? 10 years old? 12 years old? At what point does your life become expendable in this country, by virtue of the color of your skin?
It shouldn't be this way. Racism may be the "original sin" of the United States, as some have said, but it does not have to be our destiny.
That is why we are in the streets. That is why in every state in the Union, in towns big and small, people young and old are marching for justice.
And to demand that Black Lives Matter.