In 1999, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) published its third demographic survey of computer owners and Internet users. The study confirmed that which investors and advertisers might have already guessed: The Internet is attracting users at a rate unmatched by any preceding technological advance.
People are buying computers and dialing onto the Web at a faster rate than they purchased telephones, radios or television sets, even faster than they subscribed to cable television. At the end of 1998, 26.2 percent of U.S. households had Internet access. At the beginning of that same year, less than 18.2 percent were online.
Although this surge in Internet access has swept across demographic categories, it hasn’t eliminated disparities between those categories. Households earning at least $75,000 annually are significantly more likely to have Internet access than any other income level. College graduates log on more than those without degrees. Urban households are more connected than rural, dual-parent families more than single-parent and Alaskans more than the citizens of any other state. Even age might be a factor: Households headed by middle-aged individuals are more likely to log on than those headed by the old or the young.
Many of these differences are understandable, even expected. The wealthy and educated have always been the first to embrace new technologies, from the automobile to DVD and HDTV, while the poor struggle to stand in the foothills of Maslow’s mountain. Older Americans might be restricted from this new technology by fixed retirement incomes, or, after being cooped up in an office for three or four decades, they might have resolved never again to sit in front of a desk. The young might be similarly restricted by incomes, and it’s not difficult to imagine why Alaskans choose to surf away the long, lonely nights of winter.
But the reasons behind the racial disparity of Internet access are more complex. Between 1997 and 1998, the gap between the percentage of white households with Internet access and that of black households grew by 37.7 percent. Although financial disparities explain some of this gap, it exists even between white and black households with similar financial resources.
As of 1998, white households earning less than $15,000 annually were nearly five times as likely to have Internet access as similarly situated black households. Between $15,000 and $34,999, access was more than twice as prevalent in white households than in black. The gap continues to narrow but persists nonetheless as income increases. White households earning between $35,000 and $74,999 are 76 percent more likely to have Web access than their black counterparts, and above the $75,000 mark white families are 13 percent ahead in Internet connectivity.
In a January 1999 Atlantic Monthly article, Anthony Walton, examining the reasons behind the hesitance of some black Americans to embrace technology, contended that technology has historically victimized blacks. Many were ripped from their homes in Africa and thrown into caravels, triple-masted Portuguese sailing ships. These ships, the technological marvel of the 15th century, enabled the African slave trade by overcoming the nautical difficulties of sailing long distances against the wind.
In 1793, Walton wrote, the cotton gin transformed cotton from a low margin, labor-intensive product into a highly profitable crop. Farmers quickly dedicated thousands of acres to cotton and forced thousands of African slaves to plant, tend and harvest the new cash crop. Less than 10 years before the invention of the cotton gin, Americans held fewer than 500 slaves captive. By 1840, the slave population had ballooned to 200,000.
Even after slavery ended, the suffocating oppressiveness of racism, institutionalized in Jim Crow laws, pushed many black Americans to the economical and social fringes of society. From here, they were consumers of technology and the fuel for its growth, migrating northward to factories and steel mills.
Since many black Americans have experienced only the downside of technology, Walton continues, a love for it is absent from the African-American culture. Coupled with infamously poor public schools, this cultural shunning of technology results in young blacks believing that they have a greater chance of being the next Michael Jordan than of being a computer programmer or dot-com entrepreneur.
But Cincinnati businesswoman Robin Clark has succeeded in a technological environment that not only draws relatively few African Americans — according to Walton, less than 2 percent of all computer science Ph.D. degrees are conferred on blacks — but has also come to be known as a male-dominated field.
A graduate of Norfolk State University, where she earned a degree in mathematics, Clark has designed, developed and supported information systems during her career at Procter & Gamble. She’s now responsible for purchasing and managing the hardware and software used by the consumer goods giant’s North American operations.
Since 1993, Clark has also been the owner of Ropa Productions, a community-oriented production company that’s staged numerous events and fundraisers around Cincinnati.
In 1998, Clark began seeing the Internet as a way to merge her technological skills and knowledge with her experiences as a small business owner and her life-long interest in community service. She realized that many small business owners wanted to become a part of the Internet phenomenon but lacked the knowledge and, in some cases, the time to proceed on their own.
In September 1998, with the help of Web designer and host Eloquent Solutions, Clark launched Ropa Pavilion Mall (www.ropamall.com), a collection of businesses offering products and services ranging from ceramic figurines and handmade dolls to public relations and home remodeling. The site is devoid of the flashy visual and aural effects that are becoming commonplace with Internet retailers — no streaming audio or video, no virtual tours, no pop-up screens announcing sales.
Rather, Ropa Pavilion Mall has the straightforward simplicity of a community bulletin board or the advertising page on a church newsletter. A home remodeler’s page on the site contains a picture of a hammer, the proud claim that “No job is too small,” a list of the services offered and an e-mail address and phone number. An art gallery’s page simply contains pictures of the prints it offers with order buttons located beneath each.
The site is a refreshing change from the impersonal atmosphere that’s become one of the few disadvantages of the Internet. Users anywhere in the world can access Ropa Pavilion Mall, but it’s undoubtedly a community-based site. Although the term “mall” aptly conveys the message that the site is a collection of retail outlets, the word also carries negative connotations that don’t apply — a collection of corporate-owned stores with dispassionate employees.
Clark’s collection of e-stores is more of a stroll past the windows on a small town’s Main Street, where eager, helpful proprietors stand behind the counter. A visitor to the site feels that the handmade dolls are crafted by the company owner, not imported from China, and that the owners of the service companies on the site are heavily involved with the customer, not wrapped up in high-level corporate affairs.
Many, but not all, of the products offered are geared toward Cincinnati’s black community. Tan and brown fabrics comprise the face, arms and hands of the handcrafted dolls, some of which are dressed in traditional African patterns. Ceramic figurines depict brown-skinned angels, Civil War soldiers, children and Santa Clauses. And the subjects of one line of art prints are beautiful, lithe African-American dancers.
Noncommercial information on the site continues the theme. One page provides information on the African-American Heritage Festival 2000 in Washington, D.C., including reasonably priced bus tour packages to the festival. Links transport visitors to the Web sites of the Cincinnati chapters of both the NAACP and the Black Data Processing Associates, a national organization that, among other activities, encourages young African Americans to study Internet- and computer-oriented subjects.
In addition to providing Internet access to these community organizations and small businesses through Ropa Pavilion Mall, Clark also hosts an annual seminar designed to help businesses succeed on the Internet. The day-long Internet Explosion 2000, held June 15 at the Legacy Banquet and Conference Center, provided workshops on the basics of e-commerce, effective Web design and the use of both traditional and Internet-based advertising to market Web sites. The event also provided an opportunity for aspiring Internet retailers to network with and learn from experienced Web business owners and to evaluate Web page designers and hosts, marketing companies and other service providers they might need as they venture onto the Web.
As the Internet grows, its reach will undoubtedly extend into nearly every home in America. Like the telephone and television, Web access will become commonplace in neighborhoods both rich and poor.
Mirroring the demographics of society, the diversity of Internet content will expand and offer Web sites, products and services that appeal to the many cultures inhabiting this country. Ropa Pavilion Mall and sites like it (see www.elecvillage.com/ujamaa.htm for another locally produced Web site dedicated to African-American culture and business) are pioneers in bringing both this diversity and the intimacy of local communities to the Web.
DIGITAL WIRE is a monthly look at issues surrounding the rapidly changing world online. Next month, it’ll all be different. Contact Pete at letters@citybeat.com or pjshuler@fuse.net
This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 4, 2000.