I'm barely old enough to remember the conversation my elders had about how exchanging money between races was a thing. Whether it was an actual written law or just a punishable social no-no, it was unacceptable to place money directly into the hands of white people.

For black people, we had to set the money on the counter so that they could pick it up, and for white people, they would purposely ignore our outstretched hand to place the money on the counter. A silent way to draw the line in the sand.

In the south, especially, it became an encoded social construct, long after the Jim Crow era, that a particular generation would still abide by these rules. My grandma would refuse to shop in places if the clerk refused to take money from her hand. Additionally, if she had to accept cash, she would demand that they place it in her hand. I've seen her and my mother refuse money if they didn't give the respect they demanded.

As a kid, I thought it was silly, but as an adult, I understand that it is a sign of respect or disrespect.

With all that in mind, no, Smoke wouldn't dare throw money at Cornbread because it was utterly disrespectful to do that during that era. Smoke was operating within the boundaries of their social customs, and as a black man, wouldn't dream of disrespecting another black man that way, accused vampire or not.

In today's society, think of the scene in ATL where Big Boi said "Oooh shit! That was so disrespectful. You done hit me in my mouth with some got damn money." Big Boi, also from the south, improvised that line, and I'm willing to bet cash that he was taught the same customs. That "oooh shit," was my exact reaction when I first saw that movie.

Additionally, I'd like to add that I appreciated the sentiment behind this interaction because you can see Smoke battling internally with whether to throw the money for self-preservation (no one would have blamed him) or to place it in Cornbread's hand.

Watching that scene, I thought of Cornbread's family and how Stack showed up to present a better way of life. I thought of how Cornbread was out there that night because he believed in Smoke and Stack's vision. And how he'll never return home to his family. And how Smoke, with all of this in his mind as well, saw past the threat of Cornbread potentially being a vampire and saw Cornbread (for the last time) as his friend.