I'm mistaken for Hispanic in a city with a high Spanish population. I'm mistaken for Italian in NY's Italian section. People will sometimes speak Spanish or Italian to me. I have medium olive skin, dark to med brown hair, dark brown eyes. I am actually almost entirely of French heritage with a splash of Scot-Irish. I have no doubt that if I were in an area of Native Americans, I'd be mistaken for that.
But this is my experience. The cops in Dallas, with a high Spanish population and large illegal population, probably would assume I'm all or part Hispanic, as some other people there did. The cops were nothing but polite to me...as I was to them. I got stopped several times...all white cops, except one was Af. American. I was always nice, produced license & explanation, readily admitted guilt if I was guilty. Expressed shock & dismay once when he told me my tags were expired (I'd just moved & missed getting the notice).
Part of it has to do with how you react to them. And your age. My best friend is black. She lives in Dallas. She has never been treated poorly by cops, she says. She treats people respectfully (most of the time...but you don't want to get in her face..lol...she's nobody's fool).
So that's my experience. People generally treat you however you treat them, I've found. Not always. But usually. I think it may also be likely that females are treated better than males, possibly because we are less of a threat, or possibly because we just behave better in the face of authority.
Also to be fair, my brother, who is never mistaken for anything but white, would have issues with any cop who stops him, because he doesn't like authority, or cops, and has an attitude. He's not the sort to ever admit he was in the wrong. He has been banned from a number of business establishments here.
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