Subject: racial and ethnic inequality on the Net
Anthony Wilhelm (Anthony.Wilhelm@cgu.edu)
Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 10:37:07 -0700
Message-Id: <354F4E43.A664A672@cgu.edu> Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 10:37:07 -0700 From: "Anthony Wilhelm" <Anthony.Wilhelm@cgu.edu> To: roundtable@cni.org Subject: racial and ethnic inequality on the Net
I wanted to share my latest research with the group concerning
minorities and computer ownership/Internet use, which differs in
tone from the recent Vanderbilt study results. I have just completed
a Computer Ownership and Internet Use study for the Tomas Rivera
Policy Institute, a public policy "think tank" located in Claremont,
California. The survey, conducted in late February 1998, comprises a
random, representative sample of Hispanic households nationwide. An
analysis of the data reveals soaring computer ownership and online
subscribership rates among Hispanic households. For example, computer
ownership now stands at 30 percent, a 130 percent increase over the 1994
census figures. Online subscribership, moreover, is at about 15 percent
of households. While these figures lag behind those for non-Hispanic
Whites, we must revise our manichean distinction between
information/technology "haves" and "have nots."
One problem with the Vanderbilt study, for example, is that it sees the
glass as half empty. Although computer/Internet access lags among
Hispanic households, the rate of growth is now comparable between
Hispanic middle- and upper-class households and their non-Hispanic White
cohorts. Indeed, the digital divide, as far as my research shows, is no
longer widening. I would venture to guess that these results would not
be dissimilar for Blacks; however, the Vanderbilt researchers emphasized
the enduring digital divide rather than the dynamic changes occurring in
access to advanced teletechnologies over the past couple of years.
Of course, a disproportionate number of Hispanics and Blacks are poor
and lack resources and skills to be full participants in all aspects of
contemporary life, including developing facility in mastering advanced
teletechnologies. Public policy initiatives must be extended to address
these resource deficits, including literacy development,
information-seeking skills, and comprehensive "digital literacy" which
goes well beyond the hour or two a week our children spend in computer
labs. I try to elaborate a theory of how resource deficits should
underly and girt our current obsession with equalizing teletechnology
access in the current issue of Policy Studies Journal 25(4). If we see
"have nots" as lacking (comparatively) antecedent resources and skills,
then it becomes painfully obvious why educational attainment is the best
predictor of who is online. This understanding of the problem takes us
beyond familiar nostrums, such as putting computers and Internet
connections in every classroom, and reorients decision makers toward
mitigating literacy, skills, and knowledge deficits.
With electrification at the dawning of the twentieth century, society
witnessed a concomitant "high school movement," led by progressives, to
ensure that its benefits would be distributed equally throughout
society. At this moment in time, a similar movement is required to lift
college attendance and graduation. With Hispanic dropout rates near 70
percent in some communities, universal access to e-mail and the Internet
remain allusive goals. Highlighting the need for universal access to
teletechnologies, such as the Internet, while ignoring the fact that
fully one-third of Hispanic adults have NEVER used a computer before,
mistakes the cause for the effect. Proponents of this noble goal must
wrestle with masive human capital deficits in US society. Until these
challenges are met directly, the problem of information/technology "have
nots" will remain misdiagnosed.
-- Anthony Wilhelm, Ph.D. Director of Information Technology Research Tomas Rivera Policy Institute Phone: (909) 607-4580, Fax: (909) 621-8898 <anthony.wilhelm@cgu.edu>
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