NAACP and HTTP Call for Public Knowledge to Repudiate Offensive Statements Regarding Minority Organizations

Hilary Shelton, Director, Washington Bureau & Vice President for Advocacy, of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Sylvia Aguilera, Executive Director of the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP), delivered a letter to Gigi Sohn, President and Co-founder of Public Knowledge. The minority advocacy organizations issued the joint letter to express their indignation at offensive statements made in a recent blog by Art Brodsky, PK's Director of Communications, regarding minority organizations that have weighed in opposition to Public Knowledge in the current debate regarding network neutrality. Brodsky wrote: "Perhaps the saddest part of the whole affair to date is the role of groups representing minority populations. For whatever reason ­ whether they believe what the Big Telecom companies tell them or not ­ many organizations seem to land on policies that hurt their constituencies and fall into ludicrous traps one suspects are not of their making." The NAACP and HTTP countered saying, "To make the blanket assertion that minority groups "fall into ludicrous traps" when taking positions on policy is to claim that minorities, and the groups they form to advocate on their behalf, are incapable of intelligently participating in sophisticated debates. Such statements are irresponsible, prejudiced and lack qualification. To further suggest that the concerns of minority civil rights organizations are being directed to influence the only minority sitting on the FCC is indeed ludicrous. It is categorically unacceptable to claim that minority advocacy groups are colluding with certain interests to exploit the ethnic self-identification of government officials who happen to be minorities in leadership positions at the FCC." Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn acknowledges the rhetoric got overheated in the run-up to the FCC vote Thursday to launch a network neutrality rulemaking, and wants a more "civil dialogue" on both sides.