Wired Less: Disconnected in Urban America | Black Agenda Report

Wired Less: Disconnected in Urban America

Bill Quigley

15 Apr 2009

🖨️ Print Article

by InternetForEveryone.org

Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and other telco giants have spent mad public relations money spreading the myth that the digital divide is a thing of the past. Some heedless and lazy black bloggers have helped spread this lie, but it's still a lie. Redlining of and denial of service to poor and minority communities has been a core feature of the business models of the cable industry since its start decades ago, and of the phone companies for more than a century. But in the 21st century, cheap, available broadband internet is as necessary to economic development as paved streets and roads. Communities without it will become or remain economic, educational, business and social backwaters.

See, hear and read more stories about the digital divide and what it costs communities, families and lives....

America Offline

InternetforEveryone.org is working to shed light on the millions of Americans who live without regular Internet access or lack the training or equipment to get online. A small reporting team is traveling to communities across the country to tell people's stories. Free Press' Megan Tady interviewed residents of Los Angeles, Calif., and Washington, D.C. On this site, you can follow our trek and get an up-close view of America’s urban digital divide

Wired Less: Disconnected in Urban America

A report on life without the Internet in urban Americ. Five stories, each with video. »

The web site of Internet For Everyone contains much more information, and is a frequently updated source of information on the campaign to bring high speed broadband to all our communities. Do check it out. If you have a web site or blog, link to it at http://www.internetforeveryone.org/.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.

More Stories

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
U.S. Pressures CARICOM to End Cooperation with Cuba and Sends Venezuelans to El Salvador
21 Mar 2025
Camila Escalante is an editor for Kawsachun News and a Latin America correspondent for PressTV. She will discuss the latest Trump administration policies moves in Latin America. Secretary of State…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Will Trump Send U.S. Citizens to El Salvador?
19 Mar 2025
Showdowns between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary will determine the fate of everyone in the country, including whether the government has the right to send citizens to jail in…
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Israeli Fascism Is Fueled by U.S. and European White Supremacy
19 Mar 2025
The unlimited support western powers give to Israel is a continuation of colonial violence and white supremacy. The U.S. and the west wield a false moral superiority over…
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Bocas: A Daughter's Geography, Ntozake Shange, 1983
19 Mar 2025
Ntozake Shange reminds us that whether we come from Haiti, Savannah, Luanda, or Palestine, we may not speak the same language, but “we fight the same old men.”
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
The Alliance of Sahel States Forges Ahead
19 Mar 2025
I spoke to Eugene Puryear, who traveled to the November 2024 Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel.