There were many #crimingwhilewhite tweets that I faved and retweeted last night in between reading and feeling stunned, angry and validated and just amazed. This one really captured how I was feeling while looking at 20-60 tweets pop up every 5 minutes or so.

I found out about  #crimingwhilewhite while following Romany Malco on IG. Not only is it one of the most incredibly revolutionary ideas I have seen as a response to the failure of Grand Juries to indict the police officers that killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner but it also made me stay on twitter for nearly an hour which is something I never do outside of tweeting about “Scandal” and “How to get Away with Murder” every Thursday. Ironic isn’t it? Cops definitely know how to get away with murder. We know this.

Among the hundreds and hundreds of tweets that poured in from whites who were exposing their privilege through countless testimonials of run ins with the law which would gotten any Black person brutalized, beaten and killed, there were some people who tweeted how “surreal” this was, how these can’t all be real, how they sounded like “jokes” or were “bizarre”, many of them from Black Twitter. While I’m sure there might be a few false or exaggerated admissions, what’s bizarre to me is that people would be so quick to believe that #crimingwhilewhite is significantly false but that Fox News or CNN are reputable purveyors of truth.

#crimingwhilewhite is Whites joining the cause is one of the many ways that is actually useful for a change. And I hope that those who have been honest and forthright on twitter will also use their voices offline to effect change. As vocal as many of us have been online, we need to step away from the keyboard and the smart phone and also take some action offline.

If you’re in the NYC area there will be a demonstration this evening around 5:30 in Union Square. Look up a schedule of demonstrations in your neighborhood. Use technology for good.

Peace be with you.