#CrimingWhileWhite
Part of a series on Eric Garner's Death. [View Related Entries]
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About
#CrimingWhileWhite is a Twitter hashtag associated with alleged confessions of White Americans who have been excused from arrest after breaking the law. The anecdotes are meant to illustrate the widely perceived racial bias in police culture, especially the stark contrast between how the blacks and whites are treated by the law enforcement.
Origin
The hashtag was coined by Jason Ross[1], a writer for Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, on the night of December 3rd, shortly after the grand jury decision in the case of Eric Garner's death cleared the NYPD officer of any criminal charges.
Walking While Black
The phrase "criming while white" stems from another well-known expression "walking while black", which pokes fun at the racial profiling against the black community using a wordplay on "driving while intoxicated." Variations of the phrase include “driving while black,” “learning while black,” “shopping while black” and “eating while black.”
Spread
#CrimingWhileWhite[2] saw an explosive growth in volume of tweets overnight, yielding more than 300,000 mentions within the first 24 hours of Ross' original tweet, according to Topsy.[3] The stories told many confessions of easily being let off the hook after committing various crimes, including shoplifting, dining and dashing, burglary and smoking cannabis in front of a cop.
News Media Coverage
On December 3rd, the hashtag was reported on by dozens of major news outlets and blogs in the United States and overseas, including NPR[4], Washington Post[6], CNN[8], ABC News[15], BBC News[16], TIME[9], New York Times[11] and Huffington Post[10], among many others.
Notable Examples
#AliveWhileBlack
In response to the hashtag, Jamilah Lemieux, the editor of Ebony.com, launched #AliveWhileBlack for black people to share stories of their hostile interactions with the cops without any perceivably reasonable grounds.
Search Interest
[not yet available]
External References
[1] Twitter – Jason Ross' Tweet
[2] Twitter – Search results for #CrimingWhileWhite
[3] Topsy – Tweets per day: #CrimingWhileWhite
[4] NPR – #CrimingWhileWhite Opens A Prism On Police And Race
[5] Jezebel – The Problem With #CrimingWhileWhite
[6] Washington Post – #Crimingwhilewhite: White people are confessing on Twitter to crimes they got away with
[7] LA Times – After chokehold decision, Twitter explodes with 'Criming While White'
[8] CNN – #CrimingWhileWhite, #ICantBreathe dominate Twitter talk in Eric Garner case
[9] TIME – Twitter Users Confess to #CrimingWhileWhite After Eric Garner Grand Jury Decision
[10] Huffington Post – #CrimingWhileWhite Explodes On Twitter Following Eric Garner Decision
[11] New York Times – Grand Jury Decision Leads to Twitter Confessions of ‘Criming While White’
[12] Washington Post – The surprising origins of the #CrimingWhileWhite movement
[13] The Guardian – #CrimingWhileWhite is exactly what's wrong with white privilege
[14] BET – Black Twitter Responds to #CrimingWhileWhite
[15] ABC News – #Crimingwhilewhite and #Alivewhileblack Go Viral With Stories of Racial Bias
[16] BBC News – #BBCtrending: Confessions and backlash on #CrimingWhileWhite
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Top Comments
Kovier
Dec 05, 2014 at 03:08PM EST in reply to
PaidStraw8
Dec 05, 2014 at 05:20PM EST