Race and the Digital: Racial Formation and 21st Century Technologies

Internet Controversy

The topic of your blog is a controversial issue that we have been discussing in class throughout the past lectures, which is how some groups of people have no access to Internet. These groups of people, as you have mentioned, are Chicano/as, Native Americans, Mexican-Americans, and African-Americans. In today’s society I view this as a major issue, since Internet plays a great role in our lives, especially education. If none of us had Internet access, we would not be able to view this blog or respond to it. The Internet so far has not created equality, but instead a border between people of different ethnics. Some may state that the Internet is “useless” and many people have proven to get by without it, however, it does strain some parts of one’s life. Education today requires many homework/classwork assignments to be completed with the use of the Internet or a computer app such as Microsoft Word. A student can of course attend a library to use the Internet, but so many factors can hinder a student’s ability to complete such coursework with public resources. Allies can ultimately help make sure every student has access to the Internet and other technological resources ultimately through financial assistance. Financial issues are the major reason that “underprivileged” people do not have access to the Internet. Computers and other technological resources come at a price, and not a very low one either. Education is being stand stilled in creating equal opportunities for students of different ethnic backgrounds because of schools having differences in technology use and access. This topic can be discussed for hours, perhaps even days, but a solution to fix this problem seems to be as far as the gap that the digital divide creates among different ethnic groups.

Contents of this reply: