The Fight for Change with Don Polk
The Founder and Director of Don Polk & Companies, a network for advocacy and advisory services in communities, organizations and nonprofits, is a man who sees a need for uncompromising change in our society. Mr. Don Polk has seen the way that human beings in every culture and community make up myths about other groups of people that they do not identify with and disguise those myths as beliefs to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. This is something that everyone is most likely guilty of at one time or another. This is something Don Polk is working aggressively to change.
Don Polk sees people becoming their own film directors in a sense, because we tend to cast characters into restrictive roles based on our perceptions and past experiences, regardless of whether we know the first thing about these “characters” that we come across in our lives. It may seem harmless to believe in a few stereotypes if everyone else is doing it. But Don Polk sees this as the real danger that it is. The Nazis easily believed in the lies and misconceptions that were disseminated about the Jewish people, inspiring them to guiltlessly slaughter millions of German Jews who had done them no harm.
While the Holocaust might be a thing of the past, Don Polk realizes that the type of crazed mind and outlandish perception that led to the genocide of 6 million Jews and countless gentiles, homosexuals, Catholics and other groups still exists. Don Polk can see subtler forms of stereotypes and misconceptions in our modern world, from the products we use to the cartoons our children watch to the political systems in the world. Although a movie about Native Americans that is based on misconception might not seem dangerous, Don Polk sees that these subtle misconceptions are more treacherous than they seem. These misconceptions can become like fact in people?s minds.
Many people, including Don Polk, are fighting to change the misconceptions between cultures. With open communication and advocacy, we can all begin seeing a clearer picture of one another.