LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES NEED GREATER ACCESS, REPORT'S AUTHOR SAYS

It's still a white World Wide Web

It turns out the Internet isn't colorblind.

Despite its initial promise as a medium in which race would be rendered
irrelevant by the inability of users to see skin color, whites are
considerably more likely than blacks to visit the World Wide Web, a new
report suggests.

While the trend is clearly related to the two populations' unequal levels
of computer ownership, the access gulf holds true even when people of equal
education are compared, two professors at Vanderbilt University will report
today in the journal Science.

But the gulf appears greatest between blacks and whites with household
incomes below $40,000.

Low-income African-Americans are almost six times less likely than whites
to have used the World Wide Web in the past week. And white students
without computers are more than three times as likely as their black
counterparts to have surfed the Web. That suggests that schools and other
institutions in black neighborhoods don't provide the same resources that
are available to children in white neighborhoods.

``I think there are biases in our society that are operating to restrict
access to either a very narrow segment of African-Americans or to deny
access to African-Americans,'' study co-author Donna Hoffman said Thursday
in an interview. ``In order to enjoy the same levels of access, they have
to work harder.''

Hoffman said the study, which she co-wrote with Thomas P. Novak, suggests
that efforts need to be made to create Internet access points in low-income
communities to ensure that African-Americans and poor people are not denied
the employment opportunities that come with computer literacy.

The study was based on the authors' extrapolation from a random telephone
survey of 5,813 people by Nielsen Media Research. Hoffman said the
population of Asians and Latinos in the sample were too small to be
statistically significant.

Not surprisingly, the study found that higher levels of income and
education translate into increased likelihood of Web use.

Overcoming access gap

In fact, upper-income blacks have overcome the Internet access gap. Among
people from households with income above the national median, almost 33
percent of whites and 36 percent of blacks have used the World Wide Web,
the graphical section of the global computer network, in the past six
months.

But that was one of the few areas in which black Internet use was close to
that of whites. Among people whose household incomes were below average,
for instance, only 10 percent of whites have used the Web in the past six
months -- but that was still twice the percentage of blacks.

The other area in which there was parity among the races was among students
with home computers. About two thirds of both black and white students with
home PCs said they have surfed the Web in the past six months. This
suggests a possible bridge to the chasm once a new generation of converter
boxes enables cable television subscribers to access the Web cheaply.

The report's findings hardly come as a surprise to Walter Wilson of Silicon
Valley, the president of the African-American Internet Association, a
national group for people in the telecommunications industry.

Partnerships needed

``If you go from your home to the store and you don't ever run across
anything that has to do with computers or computer technology, it's not
your state of mind,'' said Wilson, who also serves as Internet chair for
the national NAACP. ``I don't even think that in East Palo Alto, there's a
computer store.''

Wilson said the solution is in partnerships among government, schools,
businesses and the community, such as the non-profit group Smart Valley
Inc., which has worked to help connect most area schools to the Internet.

Another model is the one being pursued by Herbie Hancock's Rhythm of Life
Organization, which is working to set up a computer learning center in
Hunters Point or another San Francisco neighborhood.

Project participant Joseph Mouzon, the vice president of marketing for
NetNoir, a San Francisco-based online network focusing on African-American
culture ( http://www.netnoir.com ), said the idea is to provide computer
training for high school students and adults in need of the skills to
improve their value to employers. It's a concept that business should get
behind, he said.

``It's in private enterprise's interest, particularly those that are in
this industry,'' Mouzon said. `It makes sense to grow your market.''

But will increased access to computers automatically translate into
increased usage? LC3EMG, the screen name of one otherwise anonymous person
interviewed Thursday in an online NetNoir chat room, wasn't so sure.

LC3EMG: ``It is not a priority.''

LC3EMG: ``It is still viewed as a WHITE thing so it is also Taboo in a
sense . . .''

LC3EMG: ``In black culture it is better to be a great ball player than a
great Programmer.''

LC3EMG: ``Athlete cool. Programmer NERD.''

LC3EMG: ``It has to change or else we take the path of the T-REX.''

A counterveiling viewpoint was expressed by NetNoir patron NikTastic:

NikTastic: ``If those professors were really concerned . . . ''

NikTastic: ``They would find a way for them to have better access.''

NikTastic: ``My children attend a computer based elementary school . . . ''

NikTastic: ``My kids love their school.''

NikTastic: ``They work on computers at home and school.''