This just in from Dr. Art Thomas at the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education which champions America’s historically and predominantly black colleges and universities:

“But well-meaning activists are now pushing for regulations on the Internet that would actually raise the price of broadband access, effectively pulling the high-speed plug on minority and low-income youth. They are pushing for ‘net neutrality’ legislation, which would block broadband service providers from charging large Internet companies like Google for carrying things like high-quality video into users’ homes.

The activists believe these laws will protect freedom of speech on the Web. But freedom of speech is not what’s at stake. This is about money. If they win, the losers will be minority and low-income youth.”

The good news is that the Digital Divide is finally closing. On July 6, The Chicago Tribune focused on this development, quoting a study from Pew Research that calls the recent uptake in African-American broadband use “phenomenal.”

How can any progressive in good conscience support a policy that jeopardizes this progress?