SMU professor once arrested for forged $20 bill contrasts his experience with George Floyd’s, in viral tweet

Since Mark McCoy learned Monday what George Floyd was being arrested for, he’s been spreading the word about how similar — and how different — his own run-in with police was.

“My wife was kind of chiming in with things that she had read,” the 44-year-old SMU anthropology professor said. “And then our daughter, who’s 12, said he was arrested for allegedly using a fake $20 bill.

“And that just hit me like a ton of bricks.”

In 1994, McCoy, who is white, was accused of the same offense in Massachusetts. He spent a night in jail, but the charge was dropped after a six-month probationary period.

On Memorial Day, Floyd, who is black, died after a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

McCoy pointed out the contrast in their treatment Monday in a Twitter post that has been shared more than 526,000 times and liked by more than 1.7 million people.

“For George Floyd, a man my age, with two kids, it was a death sentence,” his tweet said in part. “For me, it’s a story I sometimes tell at parties.”

McCoy, who said he hasn’t been arrested since, has always looked back on his own experience lightheartedly. “I genuinely have told that story of being arrested a lot of times because it’s an interesting story.”

He said he’d had no idea the bill he used was fake.

“I’m kind of a goody two-shoes. At the time, I was the last guy you would guess would run afoul of the law,” he said. “This could happen to anyone.”

He said he understands why his online post has resonated with people around the world: It reflects a sharp difference in how two people can be treated in similar circumstances.

His arrest came when he was 18, after he bought batteries at a convenience store and used the change at a fast-food restaurant across the street. When he finished eating, a police car was waiting outside to pick him up.

McCoy’s grandfather was a police officer, and that helped him pass through the criminal justice system with the self-assurance that everything would be fine as long as he told the truth and cooperated.

“The reason I didn’t resist arrest and the thing went the way it did is very much about my white privilege,” he said. “It’s very much about who my grandfather was and how I walk through the world, and my expectations.”

McCoy, who has worked as an associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in anthropology at SMU since 2014, said he felt a connection with Floyd.

“He was raised here in Texas,” McCoy said “I just felt like I had to say something.”

He had only about 200 followers on Twitter before the post, and he was surprised by how far and quickly his words spread. He has been asked to write an op-ed piece on his experience for Newsweek.

“You know, black and brown people already see Mr. Floyd as a human,” he said. “You don’t need to humanize him for people of color. But you do for white people. … I hope this [Twitter post] did a little bit.”