Posts Tagged ‘Broadband’

BROADBAND IN MISSISSIPPI: TOWARD POLICIES FOR ACCESS EQUITY

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

“No state can hope to build a 21st century economy on 19th Century technology. And no state or nation can be prosperous unless all residents can actively participate in building its economy. All Americans want access to the jobs, health services and educational opportunities that broadband, or high-speed Internet, can provide.   Rural communities of all colors and predominantly African American urban and rural communities in particular tend to have less access to affordable, reliable broadband service either because it simply is not available where they live or because it is priced beyond reach.  In Mississippi, the most rural state in the nation and the state with the highest percentage of African Americans, the implementation of aggressive and fair broadband infrastructure policies is critical to  building a 21st century economy.”

Today the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI) and the Mississippi State Conference NAACP (MS NAACP) released a …

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BROADBAND IN MISSISSIPPI: TOWARD POLICIES FOR ACCESS EQUITY

Permanent Blackout: For Many Communities of Color Access to the Web is ALWAYS Limited

Friday, January 27th, 2012

by Brittny Saunders
Senior Advocate

Last week , a number of well-known websites, including  Google, Wikipedia and Reddit, blacked out all or some of their content in order to protest  the Stop Online Piracy Act (“SOPA”) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (“PIPA”), two bills that they felt posed a threat to Internet freedom.  The protest, which was joined by leading groups like the Center for Media Justice and Free Press, garnered the attention of an estimated 60% of likely voters and resulted in a decision by Congressional leaders to halt consideration of both bills.  This episode speaks volumes about how much Americans value access to the World Wide Web and everything it has to offer.  But it doesn’t tell the whole story.  The fact is that for too many Americans—many of them poor people and people of color—every day is “Internet Blackout Day” because their communities don’t …

CSI DIRECTOR MAYA WILEY IN WASHINGTON POST

Friday, October 21st, 2011

(originally published in The Washington Post on 10/20/2011)

What Obama could learn from Clinton and Johnson on racial inequities
By Maya Wiley

I remember when Sen. Barack Obama confronted race in America in an eloquent and powerful 2008 speech, promising to work for a “more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.” He pledged to take on “the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through.” Sadly, Obama is falling short of the president who accomplished the most for communities of color since Lincoln: white Southerner Lyndon Johnson. He is also falling short of another white, Southern president who pursued a national dialogue on race: Bill Clinton.

History shows that when presidents confront racial inequity, America sees vast improvements. President Johnson pushed for passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Black voter registration rates in …

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CSI DIRECTOR MAYA WILEY IN WASHINGTON POST

NEW CSI REPORT CALLS FOR COMMUNITY-SCALE BROADBAND TO CLOSE ACCESS & ADOPTION GAPS

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

The Center for Social Inclusion is proud to share an exciting new report, The Promise and Challenge of Community Broadband Models: Lessons from the National Symposium on Community-Scale Broadband. The question of how best to shape the future of the Internet has never been more important. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) continues to explore strategies to get Americans access to broadband services and debate what corporations can charge us to access information on the Internet. This report shines a light on the communities that are being left behind in the Digital Age and lifts up local innovations that are connecting people to the Internet in ways that build opportunities, both economic and social. This work goes beyond the question of expanding high-speed Internet services – it builds a vision of a broadband future where all communities have high-speed Internet and are able to access new jobs and businesses, better health …

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NEW CSI REPORT CALLS FOR COMMUNITY-SCALE BROADBAND TO CLOSE ACCESS & ADOPTION GAPS