I’ve been trying to keep my opinion out of this messy situation, but a few situations recently made me finally want to speak up about police officers and African Americans. We can all agree that it is a big topic right now with so many lives being lost, both by the officers and the African Americans, and I know I’m just a 21-year-old white boy, but hear me out. This is how I honestly perceive this whole issue.

While I went into work the other day, I noticed police officers coming in and out of the store for a good two hours or so. I assumed they were doing something with the AP guys, so I didn’t pay too much mind to it until an African American guy came into my line and asked me immediately, “Hey, do you know why those cops have been here for so long?” I told him no because I honestly wasn’t sure. He replied back by saying, “Cause they’ve been in here the whole time I’ve been here, and it’s making me nervous.” This smacked the whole concept right in my face. I’ve been reading up and watching videos about the conflict for ages, but this was it right in front of me. This was the result of the relationship between the two: a regular guy feeling uncomfortable shopping for a few snacks. I saw it in his face; he felt really uneasy having the cops around, and that’s a terrible thing to feel.

Since I was young, and even before that, kids were taught that police officers are your friends and that they are there to protect you and make you feel safe. But the police officer has been made out to be someone to fear and avoid since the days of my childhood. Why has this switch happened? And why do people believe police officers are out to get African Americans?

It all comes down to stereotypes. A few bad apples did some bad things, and caused this giant swirling mess of stereotypes that haunt both sides of the spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know which one would have started first. Some bad cops butchered or treated some African Americans unfairly or some African Americans committed crimes repeatedly and, somehow, the image of both the police officer and the African American was soiled. Now, a lot of African Americans think cops are out to get them, and a lot of cops think African Americans are, typically, up to no good.

This isn’t a 100% for either side, though. Not all cops and African Americans think this way. On August 2^nd, a pair of cops in Halifax, VA were pulling people over for minor traffic violations and giving them ice cream cones instead of tickets. Several of these people were African Americans. Watch the videos here and here. This man did not treat the African American woman any differently than the white citizens he pulled over. Everyone he handed out ice cream to was a member of his community, and he wanted to see them all smile.

One of the biggest things in this video to me, other than the fact of this man showing the friendly relationship we are supposed to have with officers, is the amount of fear in the woman’s eyes in the beginning. You can see that she is uncomfortable and scared of the cop just as the man at my job was. This shows just how substantial this stereotype for police officers has become. These men who are sworn in to protect everyone are being feared as murderers because a few bad cops out of the millions decided to act out on their racist mentality. The vast majority of cops are just looking to keep their community safe and make us all feel protected just as the vast majority of African Americans are not thieves, drug dealers, or murderers. We cannot let these few exceptions ruin the view of an entire race or an entire force.

I see Facebook comments on viral videos regarding these bad situations, and it hurts me to see how poorly people view police officers just because a few abused their power. Now, because of these views, police officers cannot do their basic duties without being scrutinized. A story arose about an African American man dressed similar to the report of a bank robber, who was searched peacefully and professionally, and the world exploded about how the cops only stopped and searched him because he’s black. The man fit the description of the bank robber, so the police officers were doing their job by searching him. They did it respectfully and professionally, and then they moved on.

I can’t even do my job without being labeled as a racist sometimes. As a cashier, I need to check big bills with a special marker to make sure they are real or not. Because I encountered a fake $10 bill once, I check all bills $10 and up. Twice before, I have checked the money of an African American man and because I checked to make sure the money was real, the man said to me, “What? Is it because I’m black?” No, it is because it is a part of my job. Regardless of who you are, it is my job to try and prevent fake bills from being taken in as currency.

Stereotypes are ruining all the equality and unity we have come to create in this country. Some people are bad and do bad things, but that should not subject an entire gender, race, or ethnicity to a stereotype that labels them all as a people who do those said bad things.