There is no denying that there is an issue with corruption in police forces throughout the United States. Police officers are often targeting innocent, unarmed people from minority groups which creates and maintains tension between the community and the uniformed officials. The basis of identifying someone as a minority is based on stereotypical appearance; it’s based on a generalized idea of what a person from that race looks like. I have been told on various occasions that I do not look Hispanic, which makes me lucky. While I am proud of my heritage and will flaunt it whenever given the opportunity, I do not deny that I am privileged in not looking like the typical Dominican adolescent. My hazel eyes, light skin, and easily straightened hair heavily contrast the frizzy curls, tanned/dark skin, and brown eyes that are “typical” for Dominicans and other Afro-Latinos. In fact, my parents told me that on a trip back from the Dominican Republic, they were stopped and questioned by officials at the airport because they were travelling with a child that had blonde hair and green eyes, which did not correlate with my parents’ features. When I tell people where I’m from, they say, “Oh, I sort of see it now…” But they didn’t see it before, apparently. While this makes me wonder what they did see, it also means that a random police officer also will not see “it”. I am lucky because the probability of me being on the nasty end of an encounter with a police officer is no where near that of my obviously Hispanic-looking family… and that only serves to make me worry more.