Actor Dennis Haysbert: Intolerance is a divisive force

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — On the series “24,” Dennis Haysbert played the much-respected first black President of the United States.

On his new Syfy series, he plays the much-feared head of security of a despotic futuristic corporation.

By now, Haysbert knows a little something about power, whether used for good or ill, and he’s worried about power he sees misapplied on the current real-life scene.

“From the things I’ve seen over the last six months to a year,” he said, “it seems that the intolerance of people against other people is growing and growing.”

But, speaking Wednesday to TV reporters at the Television Critics Association summer meeting, Haysbert added that this brand of intolerance — which he didn’t feel the need to specify or pin on anyone by name — is anything but new.

“This has been going on for years,” he declared. “What we’re doing now is pulling back the veil.

“Nothing has changed,” he continued as he called for the public to recognize “that we are all one. Our DNA is the same: We’re human beings.”

Nowadays, he lamented, everyone is marshalling their own divisive store of power, “to figure out who’s on top. Well, I’ll tell you who’s on top: It’s always been that 1 percent that has looked down on everyone else and kept us fighting each other.

“Until we figure that out, and stop it, this is where we’re headed.”

Haysbert’s series, “Incorporated,” premieres Nov. 30.