#CrimingWhileWhite Exposes Racial Divide In America: White People Tweet Crimes They Committed With Little To No Consequences

The trending Twitter hashtag #CrimingWhileWhite has further pulled back the curtain on the inequalities of the judicial system between the races.

Comedy writer Jason Ross ("The Tonight Show") created the hashtag a little before 5 p.m. on Wednesday, shortly after a grand jury decided not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner. By 3 a.m., #CrimingWhileWhite had been tweeted almost 178,000 times.

Ross started by confessing his own crimes that he committed while a juvenile and then called on other white people to do the same.

"Busted 4 larceny at 11. At 17, cited for booze + caught w gun @ school. No one called me a thug. Can't recommend being white highly enough," the comedian wrote. "BTW, I'm not boasting. That record is (or was) sealed and I hoped never to contend w/ it again. But for f***'s sake."

The responses by the white Twitter community have ranged from petty crimes to historical atrocities usually committed by white men.

A popular post retweeted multiple times was the photo of a world map captioned, "Stealing all the land marked purple on this map. #CrimingWhileWhite" More than three-quarters of the map was covered.

Others have pointed to high profile cases involving white defendants such as Ethan Couch or Casey Anthony. Couch received 10 months probation after killing four people in a drunk-driving accident at age 15. Anthony was found not guilty in the death of her two-year-old daughter. The hashtag has received a mixed reaction from blacks and other minorities on Twitter. Some have found it enlightening while others think the tweets are self-serving.

The Eric Garner decision came a little more than week after a grand jury in Missouri also decided not to indict Ferugson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.

The overwhelming conclusion of the #CrimingWhileWhite hashtag was the open dialogue it created about the racial divide in America. A couple tweets neatly summed up it all up.

"One thing #CrimingWhileWhite tweeters have in common: they're all alive to tell their tales," director-producer Justin McLachlan wrote.

"Please read #CrimingWhileWhite for proof that there are two Americas. One that gets off with a wink. And one that just gets offed," Jeff Yang, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wrote.

Tags

Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Crime