Actor and activist Hill Harper urges African-Americans to go online

Actor and activist Hill Harper urges African-Americans to go online

A major broadband summit will take place in Newark today, to discuss and brainstorm ways to improve Internet access in New Jersey's urban and low-income communities. The event, which is sponsored by the Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), will be held at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). According to Hill Harper, actor, author and activist, who is an advocate of ADE and similar organizations, says he believes there is a correlation between the extreme lack in access to broadband and Internet technology for minority and underrepresented groups like African-Americans and Latinos, and the current unemployment rates among these cultural groups. Statistics show that 68 percent of African-Americans access the Internet, while unemployment rates for African-Americans is 16.5 percent. Meanwhile, Harper is urging people to go online. "Even if you don't have access in your home to a computer, go to your local library find a way to get online and do research, type in things that you're interested in."