CLOSING REMARKS OF CHAIRMAN JULIUS HOLLIS
ADE’S LOS ANGELES MINORITY BROADBAND EMPOWERMENT SUMMIT
To our panelists and moderators Hill Harper, Tarvis Smiley, Mario Armstrong and Malik Yoba; To our distinguished guests gathered here on the campus of USC, as well as to the global viewing audience including our Coalition Members and the nearly 1,000 community leaders, who are a part of ADE’s Digital Empowerment Councils.
I want to take this opportunity on behalf of the Board of the ADE to extend our appreciation to you for joining us here today.
We have come to “The City of The Angels” strengthen in our core belief in the promises and possibilities that Digital Empowerment can contribute to the improvement of the quality of life in America, particularly in communities of color. Broadband Internet accessibility is no longer a simple luxury for most Americans today, but a “life-line” that enables those striving to get ahead, to stay ahead in our constantly evolving digital connected society. It is quite clear that broadband is one of the most empowering technologies we have seen in modern history. Currently, more than 63% of Americans have instant accessibility to the Internet. However, the remaining 37%, many situated in un-served, underserved and rural communities have yet to fully benefit from this “Digital Revolution”. Within the last several years as the newest subscribers to the Internet, the combined purchasing power of African-Americans and Latinos has played a critical role in helping broadband providers to accelerate the development and build-out of their national high-speed broadband service grids. At the moment, as the powerful in Washington DC are in the midst of debating well-meaning, but questionable policies that could potentially make broadband unaffordable to a vast majority of American’s minorities, policy-makers must clearly understand that the un-served and underserved must not be forsaken based on academic test-tube theories that have no real meaning in the lives of millions that could be adversely impacted.
Making broadband unaffordable in America at a time of when our nation is just beginning to fully grasp the miracles that digital technology can provide in the delivery of vital services, could create long-term social-economic chaos far too difficult to comprehend, if 50-to-60 million disadvantaged Americans are economically disenfranchised from our society, “The last ones on, must not be the first ones off.”
While Wall Street is booming, Main Street is suffering, especially African-American, Latino, Native American and Blue Collar consumers, who are the true victims of this economic train wreck, which started with America’s entry into Iraq well before President Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.
In the lyrics of one of America’s great musical icons, “Jay-Z” and I quote “Men May Lie; Women May Lie, but Numbers Don’t Lie”. While the national unemployment rate hovers above 10%, unemployment amongst minority consumers is well above 15% and equally as depressing, the underemployment rates are 23.8% and 25.1%, respectively for African-American and Latino citizens.
Just this past week, the Southern Education Foundation released a study, which revealed that the national poverty rate for African-American and Latino children is a staggering 35%. Conversely, the report also revealed that 50% of the students attending public schools in the South including also non-minority low-income, as well as African-American and Latino students are considered to be poverty stricken.
Yet, despite the bad economic news that bombard our airwaves daily, we can see a glitter of light at the end of the tunnel because as a nation we are in the embryonic stages of one of the most important socio-economic transformative periods in the history of our democracy. This Digital Revolution will forever change the distribution channels of how vital services such as healthcare, education, public safety and economic development are delivered to Americans in order to improve their quality of life. This Digital Revolution will create millions of new jobs within the next five years by resetting the job related skill sets of all Americans both minority and non-minority. Equally as important, it will truly recalibrate political and civic disclosure in our nation, as well as potentially temper the polarization of some of our cultural differences, which have been cleverly used and seized upon by surrogates in Washington DC for political gains in order to allow a few amongst us to economically proposer for untold generations to come. For minorities in America, the years between President Clinton and President Obama can best be described and summed-up in the words of Sir Winston Churchill “Never has so many, given so much, for the benefit of so few.”
After almost three years of thought-leading research and digital advocacy at the grass-root level through our Digital Empowerment Councils, the ADE is confident that the “economic divide” can be narrowed and that both broadband and mobile broadband are the essential tools needed in order to level the playing field for millions of Americans.
The un-served and underserved that are situated in rural and urban communities must enjoy the full economic and civic benefits that the digital future promises. They must not be denied these benefits because of rising broadband price pressures or the lack of investment in broadband infrastructures.
Neither can broadband providers abuse the public trust of the internet in order to stymie political or civic discourse or discriminate against disadvantaged Americans.
There is much work that still needs to be done to hasten the dawning of a New Day in America.
Let us remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face-to-face with another problem.”
In our ever-increasing linked economy, these words ring truer today than they did nearly 44 years ago during another era of socio-economic adjustment in our society.
As we conclude this remarkable Summit today, let us remember the legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Caesar Chavez, both of whom concluded that “Civil Rights” without economic equality is indeed a dream unfulfilled. Closing the digital divide can transform this imperfect society of ours into an oasis of true and lasting economic equality of all Americans.
Thank you for joining us in our quest of “Empowering Communities Across The Digital Divide.”
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