Issa Rae recently shared a humorous yet panic-inducing incident involving her 5-year-old nephew and a school fundraiser during her appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The actress, writer, and producer, who recently appeared in Barbie, said she had been asked by her sister to help her nephew secure a win in his school’s online fundraiser. Rae said she waited until the last second — literally at 4:59:59 p.m.— to donate what was likely a large amount of money to her nephew for his school’s online fundraiser. Except, she selected the wrong child’s name, inadvertently boosting her nephew’s opponent, who she referred to “Zulu” to protect the anonymity of the young child, to the first-place spot, Entertainment Weekly reported.
She said to Fallon, “He [Rae’s nephew] gets to No. 1 and then, at the deadline, it’s 4:50 and I’m like, ‘I know one of these parents, they’re going to try and get their kid up. So, at 4:59, on the dot, I’m going to just boost [her nephew’s profits]a little bit… I set it all up, I put a little extra money on there, and I hit the purchase button right at 4:59:59. And then I realized… I gave it to Zulu.”
The Awkward Black Girl creator no doubt found herself in an awkward position. Her family members were competitive about her nephew winning the fundraiser but had no clue Rae was the reason Zulu was boosted again to first place.
Rae said, “The family group chat is going crazy. They’re just like, ‘How could this happen? Parents are so greedy! People take this too seriously!’ And I’m dead silent.”
Rae, who played “President Barbie” in the Barbie film, said she tried to right her wrong immediately by calling her bank. The Insecure star shared with Fallon, “I was calling American Express like, ‘Please, can we cancel? This is fraud!’”
She added, “And so it wasn’t until the next day where they were like, ‘Oh, you can cancel it’ that I decided… He got second place. Sorry to Zulu. He dropped down in the numbers.”
Apparently, Fallon didn’t agree with Rae’s decision to contact her bank, which resulted in Zulu dropping in rank the next day. “This is a terrible lesson to teach your nephew!” Fallon said to Rae.
After all the hassle, according to Rae, her 5-year-old nephew didn’t care where he placed in the fundraiser, Entertainment Weekly reported.
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