TECHNOLOGY: ‘Digital Divide’ Widens Between US Races, Classes

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jul 11 1999 (IPS) - President Bill Clinton and top US officials are warning of a growing Internet gap between wealthy US citizens, who are mainly white and Asian-American, and poor ones, particularly African-Americans and Hispanics.

Only about 12 percent of black and Hispanic households have access to the Internet, compared to around 30 percent of all white households and 36 percent of all Asian-American households, according to a new government report.

This “digital divide” also is evident among households with different income levels, says the Commerce Department report, ‘Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide.’

Those with annual incomes exceeding 75,000 dollars are more than 20 times more likely to have access to the Internet than households earning less than 15,000 dollars, according to the Commerce Department.

Indeed, fewer than 12 percent of all families with annual incomes of less than 25,000 dollars have Internet access at home, compared to more than 60 percent of households with incomes over 75,000 dollars.

Race is a critical factor even among low-income families. A child in a poor white family is still three times more likely to have Internet access than a child in a comparable black family and four times more likely than a child in a Hispanic family, according to the report, which is based on a survey of 48,000 US households earlier this year.

Clinton, commenting on the findings, rues the “growing digital divide between those who have access to the digital economy and the Internet and those who don’t.”

“That divide exists along the lines of education, income, region, and race,” he notes, adding that “if we want to unlock the potential of our workers, we have to close that gap.”

Vice President Al Gore, who has begun his campaign to succeed Clinton in next year’s presidential elections, also has seized on the theme and is calling for an “all-out national crusade” to close the gap in computer and Internet access.

In a speech to a national convention of journalists from minority ethnic groups Friday, Gore said access to computer technology has quickly become one of the nation’s “leading economic and civil rights issues.”

He also has endorsed the Commerce Department’s recommendations, which include doubling government funding aimed at making the technology more accessible in communities where usage is low, and investing more in computer education in schools.

“In the 21st century, innovation and technology can be engines of opportunity, not engines of inequality,” Gore argues.

The 108-page report shows that computer ownership and Internet use has exploded in the United States over the last five years among all demographic groups.

Nationwide, more than 42 percent of US households owned personal computers as of the end of 1998, up from 24.1 percent in 1994. Twice as many black and Hispanic households now own computers compared to five years ago.

Some 26 percent of all US households had Internet access at the end of 1998, a 40 percent increase from 1997. During the past year, Internet access increased 53 percent for white households, 52 percent for black households, and 48 percent for Hispanic households.

But that growth has been uneven across groups, with the result that the “digital divide” has actually widened as information “haves” outpace the “have- nots” in critical ways.

Nor is the divide confined to race and income. The report says that education also is a critical factor: Citizens with a college or university degree are eight times more likely to have a computer at home and nearly 16 times more likely to have home Internet access than those with a primary-school education.

Rural-urban differences are particularly striking. A high- income household in an urban area is more than 20 times more likely than a rural, low-income household to have access to the Internet. In every income category, and particularly among households below the 15,000-dollar poverty line, rural-dwellers lag significantly behind their city counterparts.

Officials here point to the gaps between racial, ethnic and income groups as the most worrying, particularly because the survey shows that the gaps have grown in key areas.

“America’s digital divide is fast becoming a ‘racial ravine’,” according to Larry Irving, assistant Commerce Secretary for Telecommunications.

In 1994, for example, about ten percent of black households and 12.3 percent of Hispanic households had computers at home, compared to 27 percent of white households who had one.

Last year, computer ownership grew to 23.2 percent of black households, 25.5 percent of Hispanic households, and 46.6 percent of whites. The difference in percentages between whites and the two minority groups had grown by about 40 percent.

In Internet access, the gap has grown even more sharply over a much shorter period of time. In 1997, 21.2 percent of white households had Internet access at home, compared to 7.7 percent and 8.7 percent of blacks and Hispanics.

By the end of 1998, however, about one third of white households were linked to the web compared to 11.7 percent of blacks and 12.9 percent of Hispanics. The gap between whites and the two most disadvantaged groups thus has widened by more than 50 percent.

The divide also has widened substantially between wealthier households and the lowest income groups with respect to Internet access – although the gap in computer ownership between households with annual incomes between poverty level (15,000 dollars for a family of four) and 75,000 dollars actually narrowed last year between 1997 and 1998.

That may be one indirect result of the Asian financial crisis. Lower production costs in Asia have permitted many computer companies to slash prices for sophisticated systems to below 1,000 dollars.

Still, households with incomes of more than 75,000 dollars are more than nine times more likely to have a computer at home and 20 times more likely to have Internet access than households at the lower ends of the income spectrum.