by Paul Gorski for EdChange and the Multicultural Pavilion
The digital divide is understood too often as simple gaps in rates of physical access to computer and Internet technology. In order to work effectively to dismantle the digital divide, we must understand it first and foremost as a symptom of larger forms of oppression, power, and privilege.
The racial digital divide is a symptom of systemic racism. This is why attempts to solve it simply by adding more computers and Internet access to classrooms and other public places has not worked. The dismantling of the racial digital divide must include, at the very least, an examination of three dimensions of the divide within a larger framework of systemic racism: gaps in physical access, gaps in pedagogical access, and gaps in cultural access.
I. Gaps in Physical Access
Classrooms in schools in which 50 percent or more of the student population are students of color are less likely than classrooms in other schools to have Internet access. By 2001, about 80 percent of the former and 90 percent of the latter had Internet access (NCES, 2002).
Schools in which 50 percent or more of the students are People of Color are less likely than other schools to have adaptive hardware and software for students with disabilities (NCES, 2002).
II. Gaps in Pedagogical Access
Students in schools in which Student of Color enrollments exceed 50 percent of the school population are much less likely to have participated in the creation (28 percent compared to 52 percent) or maintenance (23 percent compared to 42 percent) of the school Web site than those in schools with small populations of Students of Color (NCES, 2002).
Teachers in schools in which 50 percent or more of the students are People of Color are less likely to have received training in use of the Internet (70 percent compared to 85 percent) and are less likely to have assistance in use of the Internet (65 percent compared to 80 percent) than their colleagues at schools with lower populations of Students of Color (NCES, 2002).
III. Gaps in Cultural Access
Latino men, ages 25-54, spend on average 28 percent less time on the Internet than the average man in that age group. African American men spend 32 percent less time on the Internet than the average (CyberAtlas, 2002).
Studies have shown that both Native American (Economic Development Administration, 1999l) and African American Internet (Pew Internet Project, 2000) users, for differing reasons, remain distrustful of Internet technology.