• by Smokey D. Fontaine , February 26, 2009

It seems the digital divide is over. It was a peculiar concept originally, this idea that African-Americans were not online as much as our white counterparts.

I remembered us always being early-adopters of all things technological, always first to the table of cool or innovative or "must-have." But in 2001, while I was overseeing a $35 million Internet venture that we dubbed internally as the "Black AOL" (the HBO-run entity later swallowed up by the real AOL in the Time Warner merger), the digital divide was holding me back from finding an addressable audience for all of my super-cool video content. I just knew it would hit if only I could push it through more than a 56k dialup pipe -- that's when you learn that "cool" and "addressable audience" are often at odds.

Cut to almost a decade later, and there are more than 32 million African-Americans online, ready and able to receive whatever interactive rich-media, socially-fueled content I want to stream to them in as many different formats as possible. A recent Black America study proved that while 71% of all Americans are online, 68% of African-Americans are, and the online rate among Black teens is 90%. This creates an exciting opportunity, especially when set against a historical perspective that defines the African-American cultural journey as one of self-expression against all odds, of a dogged fight for visibility.

Now that that access and visibility is real, all we need is content. The Internet is the African-American community's Great Equalizer, the medium that has made limitless information an off-the-shelf commodity. Tools and services that could once be unfairly used or disproportionately distributed are now just waiting for all African-Americans, for all people of color, for anyone who has ever been disenfranchised, behind a good (and free) Google search and the tap of a track pad.

But what makes African-American online content? Is it simply "general market" stories re-positioned for a Black consumer? Is it an aggregation of stories about Black people? Is it specific stories told by Black people? Or maybe it's not stories at all. Maybe it's services that are made effective because they come from a trusted (read: Black) source. Maybe it's about tools, products and designs that are unique because they were made with a Black audience in mind. Maybe it's just about relevancy for someone who is African-American, or belongs to an African-American community (the Black America study also showed that there are different segments within the African-American community, proving they are not a monolithic group).

The answer is that it is all of the above. African-American content has to be the best of everything, because those who have the least have to sing the loudest, and the web provides a pretty big microphone. Our beloved African-American president will have a harder time solving our community's ills, than the community itself will when informed and connected and empowered through the web. The greater community doesn't even really know it yet. The millions of mobilized young people who come through the lobby of Black Planet every month are only beginning to imagine what is possible when you can connect, share, learn and showcase everything your life is about, all with a few clicks.

I used to argue that hip-hop was the primary way we were all socialized. In the absence of a strong family unit, the church, or any reliable systems of education, young people learned how to talk to each other, treat each other, and feel about themselves and their world using the rhymes they listened to every day. Now the Internet is the new umbrella brand under which everyone is born, grows up and figures it all out.

But we must address responsibility, because with the further deterioration of the inner-cities, frightening amounts of Black-on-Black violence (Chicago, what's happening?), and the rise of a powerless Black under-class that far outweighs the rise of the new Black middle-class, the Internet provides a great resource. James Baldwin once asked in his classic discussion of the Civil Rights Movement, The Fire Next Time, "Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?" Well, maybe we can feel safer online than we ever have on the street? Maybe clicking a mouse has a better ROI than hitting that corner?

So to Black America, I say this: let's blog, let's write, and let's shoot video. Let's gossip and analyze and give our opinions. Let's search and create and show off the best of ourselves.

It is a journey of online self-discovery that we all must take above ground. Opportunity and responsibility. A nice guiding light for Black Planet.com.