[COMCAST\Black Students]
Color of Change: “Comcast can do better. Demand they provide universal internet for every student before schools reopen.”
Photo: YouTube
Will Comcast step up to the plate by helping needy Black students with high-speed internet access as schools struggle to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Students may be forced to put their lives at risk this back-to-school season.
Without high-quality, high-speed internet access, Black students across the country will be forced to go back-to-school in person, even while COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
But Comcast has the power to intervene. Comcast created Internet Essentials, a discount, internet access program meant to be available to those families who need a low-cost internet option. As it is now, though, the Internet Essentials program isn’t working. The program only gives access to a small number of students and families, providing subpar, slow, and difficult to use service, and leaving tens of thousands of students unable to access their education online.
Families shouldn’t have to pay $100 a month for internet so our kids can learn. Comcast should provide high-quality, easily accessible Internet for Black students.
Schools will, once again, need to hold classes online this fall in order to safely and ethically educate their students. That means students need to have high-quality internet service at all times in order to learn without obstacles. Without it, Black students will suffer, forced to learn without the proper resources or support, or may be excluded from virtual learning environments entirely.
Comcast can do better. They should provide universal internet for every student before schools reopen.
With all of Comcast’s pandemic profiteering, Comcast can easily afford to make fast internet available to all students.
Comcast CEO, Brian Roberts, personally increased his net worth by about $100 million during the COVID-19 pandemic, expanding Comcast’s wealth and increasing his own wealth, all while our children suffer.
Comcast also made a national announcement in response to George Floyd’s murder, pledging to donate millions of dollars in support of Black lives. At the same time, Comcast continues to provide massive sponsorship funds to the Philadelphia Police Foundation, the institution that supports the very officers who criminalize and brutalize us.
Comcast cannot declare their support of Black lives while profiting off of us and sponsoring the institutions that harm us.
Comcast should fund internet access for students, not the police force.
