• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 2, 2002

Marketing consultant Robert Jackson, Jr., in a column in the River Cities Reader, says that the myth du jour: the Digital Divide, could become a self-fulfilling prophecy based on the cliche of minorities not having equal access to technology. In his article he describes the Digital Divide as the disparity between those who have access to Internet technology and those who have not.

In July of 1999, the U.S. Commerce Department released a report called "Falling through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide," which found that households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more were 20 times more likely to have Internet access and nine times more likely to have computers than families in the lowest income bracket. The term Digital Divide is now so commonplace that some people consider it a cliché.

The finding that grabbed the most headlines was that whites were more likely to have Internet access at home than African Americans or Hispanics were to have Internet access anywhere -- home, school, or work. The fact of the matter is that African Americans are going online in ever-increasing numbers, boosting their spending on computers and computer-related products by 143 percent in 2001, according to Target Market News. There are more than 6 million African Americans online, and with computer prices dropping to a little over $500, many of the poorest people are making sacrifices to get computers and online service, Jackson reports.

A recent report by the Joint Center for Political Studies found that there's little difference in Internet usage between upper- middle-class blacks and whites. And at the highest income levels -- above $90,000 annually -- blacks are more likely to be wired than whites.

The digital divide is far more about class than race, says Jackson.

You can read more here.