What Don Polk Has to Say About Social Intolerance
There are many people like Don Polk who are helping to bring about real change in our society and trying to eliminate the stereotypes that have been separating humans from one another for centuries. Don Polk is the founder and director of Don Polk & Company, an advisory and advocacy firm that serves private companies, communities and nonprofit organizations in the health and economic equality sector. He believes that before change can come about, we must learn to see the difference between what we perceive, what we believe in and what the actual reality is.
Since America has such a stifling, confusing and often demoralizing past, it has been easy for people to develop some heinous stereotypes and misconceptions that they do not even realize are so biased and inaccurate. Don Polk sees this fact, but he also believes that if we can be more open and brutally honest about race and about what our beliefs are that we can start to work on these things and see each other more clearly. Don Polk says that the responsibility of the new generation is to take the torch lit by such visionaries as Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy, and use that light to touch the media in a positive way.
Don Polk believes that hurtful and derogatory beliefs and crazed imaginations are often the result of simple discussions with family when gathered around the kitchen table. Episodes of television shows can even be some of the worst spreaders of hate and intolerance. If people can use that power to speak the truth, though, they can have the same dramatic affect on the mindsets of those around them. People like Don Polk are trying to use their influence to affect that positive change.
Don Polk has said that it’s time to let people know the earth is no longer flat and there is a beautiful and colorful sphere left to be explored. Don Polk is not speaking about uncharted territory and undiscovered land, though. He is talking about the colorful range of cultures that each of us is yet to explore.