February 11, 2002

3:47 PM

Bush abandons national strategy to bridge the digital divide.After a year of public speculation over whether the White House was committed to expanding Internet access and skills to all of America's citizens, the administration has finally broken its silence. In its FY 2003 budget, the White House stripped over $100 million in public investments previously available for community technology grants and IT training programs--programs that offer real payoffs to rural communities, the working poor, minorities and children.
posted by badstone (20 comments total)

If there was ever a bogus divide it's the digital one. Internet access and skills will have 90%+ global penetration long before a similar percentage has access to say clean water or better than sub-elementary level 3R skills (the semi-literate can use computers about as well as they watch TV (very) with a bit of exposure, I've seen it). Any money given to oh-so-needy techies for digital divide bridging would be much better spent on these much more basic and persitent divides IMO.
posted by mlinksva at 4:15 PM on February 11, 2002

And the checklist expands.....
posted by Mach3avelli at 4:29 PM on February 11, 2002

Any money given to oh-so-needy techies for digital divide bridging would be much better spent on these much more basic and persitent divides IMO.

But they're not. They're being spent on fucking tax cuts for the wealthy.
posted by jpoulos at 6:36 PM on February 11, 2002

That's who pays them, jpoulos.
posted by techgnollogic at 6:49 PM on February 11, 2002

...unless you're Enron, techgnollogic.
posted by jpoulos at 6:56 PM on February 11, 2002

The Enron that sorta collapsed? The Enron whose former executives may face criminal charges? The Enron that's generating all that damning press coverage and critical analyses of corporate earnings reports across the board? THAT Enron? Good example. Do you do card tricks?
posted by techgnollogic at 7:18 PM on February 11, 2002

" ... But they're not. They're being spent on fucking tax cuts for the wealthy..."

How can we get some of them tax cuts for the wealthy everyone talks so much about?

Sincerely,
The Wealthy
posted by MidasMulligan at 7:28 PM on February 11, 2002

Earn enough to pay income taxes at all? That's what you had to be in order to be "wealthy" enough to get tax money back last year.
posted by aaron at 7:45 PM on February 11, 2002

In case anyone has any questions about the political impartiality of the Benton Foundation.
posted by aaron at 7:48 PM on February 11, 2002

I'm pretty happy when I hear about tax cuts, I don't care who is getting them.
posted by thirteen at 8:26 PM on February 11, 2002

Though, no one deserves tax cuts more than me.
posted by thirteen at 8:26 PM on February 11, 2002

bah. I'll concede that was sort of a half-ass volley, eh?
posted by jpoulos at 8:32 PM on February 11, 2002

I would like to say this is another "Bush Is Evil" move, but the whole "digital divide" thing reeks. At least it seems in the black community, these folks are buying sneakers and telling their kids to play basketball instead of buying them a cheap web access device and expanding their mind. No amount of government largesse is going to correct that psychological failing.
posted by owillis at 8:45 PM on February 11, 2002

How long before a cheap web access device costs less than whatever passes for a cool pair of sneakers?
posted by mlinksva at 1:00 AM on February 12, 2002

Sincerely,
The Wealthy

. . .Establishment that you yourself are not a corporation nor the uber rich. But that you and all who are not either of those aspireto be, just that, by supporting every little pecuniary measure that "cuts taxes" while simultaneously Enron does not.
posted by crasspastor at 1:59 AM on February 12, 2002

Owillis: At least it seems in the black community, these folks are buying sneakers and telling their kids to play basketball...

Is this before or after they buy the fried chicken and watermelon, Owillis? As long as you're riding the Stereotype Train, why don't you claim that they would spend the money on drugs, guns, and whores?

"I was not angry since I came to Metafilter until this instant."
posted by joaquim at 11:03 AM on February 12, 2002

joaquim: I read Oliver's remark and got angry, too. Then I put blacks and sneakers in Google, and this Business Week article turned up.

A 1998 Vanderbilt University study reports that among lower-income households ($40,000 or less), 27.5% of whites own PCs, vs. only 13.3% of blacks. Even more disturbing: 37.8% of white students without home PCs said they had used the Web in the past six months, but only 15.9% of black students did -- suggesting a major access problem.

And that's not just because many black families can't afford computers. ''If you walk into a home in Bed-Stuy today, you'll see a couple of Nintendos, a large-screen TV, cable TV--there's money being spent,'' says Pat Bransford, director of the National Urban Technology Center Inc. Nor is technological intimidation a factor, sources say, judging from all those VCRs being programmed out there.

This lower rate of computer interest is especially alarming in light of a recent Benton Foundation/National Urban League study showing that 60% of future jobs will require technology skills and 75% of transactions between individuals and the government will be electronic. Currently, a mere 7% of computer-systems analysts and computer scientists and just 5% of programmers are African-American, according to the U.S. Office of Technology Policy. John Mack, Los Angeles head of the National Urban League, dubs access equity ''the civil-rights issue of the 21st century.'' ...

School computers are nonexistent or hopelessly old, Oyo says. And the Internet is largely a white world, points out David Bolt, the producer of a four-part PBS series, Digital Divide, that's scheduled to air next fall. There are cultural factors, too, such as black kids ''not wanting to appear white''--or geekily uncool. Notes Marsha Reeves Jews, president of Career Communications Group, sponsor of the Awareness Week program: ''We've got to figure out how to make it sexy.'' ...

I want to take the piss out of bias where I find it. No one likes finding stories about bad behavior by/among blacks less than me -- like, say, this Sacramento Bee article headlined "Blacks Riot in Shopping Mall Over Shortage of Air Jordans." I think of Ice Cube's "Us" and I say it aloud to myself because it's true, but remediable, not because it's all that defines us or all that African-Americans can be: "Us / will always sing the blues / 'cause all we care about's hairstyles and tennis shoes."

posted by allaboutgeorge at 9:38 PM on February 13, 2002

Disclaimer: I don't like stereotypes because I think they're a symbol of lazy, unchallenged thinking, be it blacks and sneakers, or fried chicken, guns, drugs or (first pr0n link I could find) whores.

That said, it's good to challenge them where and when you think you come across them. I think you meant well, joaquim. It's taken you a long time to get mad at something you read on MeFi; I hope you don't hold onto it. This site's a lot less fun when you're angry.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 10:10 PM on February 13, 2002

*turns to O-Dub* $100 million out of the federal budget? That's not much, government largesse-wise. A lot of money gets spent on other, far less worthy programs, IMHO. It's clear that work has to come from the community to foster attitudes and win hearts and minds on the computer issue, but I don't think that money needed to be cut either.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 10:14 PM on February 13, 2002

joaquin: The first way to fix bias is to look at ourselves. I say things about the black community that are bad because we spend too much time blaming the other instead of ourselves. Sure, there are external pressures and biases, but until you self-correct it enfeebles you so you can't fight those external forces.

So if it got you mad, good. We don't have enough outrage. We need to take a cool hard look at priorities in the black community before you can run out and blame "the man".

George: You know my stance on government largesse. I say that $100 million is a waste of money. I say the billions we spend on white farmers in the middle of nowhere is a waste of money. The whole idea of "well we're wasting money here, so it's okay to waste it there" is why the system is so corrupt and screwy now. I'd like us to nip these things in the bud asap.
posted by owillis at 11:20 PM on February 13, 2002