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First of all there really IS a deep digital divide. Corporate America, most notably the telecom companies and Big Media have every reasons to deny this, but it is a fact. Here in GA where I live I can take you to small and medium sized towns --- even to spots in the burbs of Atlanta where once you cross the line into the areas inhabited by African Americans, the price of broadband doubles or triples because the cable companies are permitted to redline our communities. In Chicago where I lived for 50 years, the price of cable internet is almost double in Lawndale or Ford Heights what it is in Skokie or Barrington or Rolling Meadows, and people make a lot less in the hood, so there are really quite few more blacks connected, per hundred thousand, than whites, no matter what this study says. The rash of state cable franchise deals pushed through with a flood of telecom campaign contributions in the last couple years (and with the connivance of many black state legislators) have a lot to do with this, and are actually KEEPING the digital divide very wide and very alive.
I have been in legislative hearings and on the front lines of this stuff nationally and in GA, and I distinctly recall correcting dNa about parroting this very same sort of "the digital divide is no more" story in his blog a while back. It was nonsense, corporate propaganda, and just plain untrue, a year or two ago, and it remains so today. Cable companies and telecoms want out from under any public scrutiny of their practices, they want to be free to continue to redline our communities, so they continue to plant stories like this in the media, telling us that everything is OK, that they don't need to be legally forced to give equal service for a fair price to minority communities.
I will never know why some black bloggers are willing to echo this corporate propaganda uncritically. Shame. I strongly recommend that dNa undertake some real study on the question before broadcasting a piece of self-serving corporate PR. That Radio One, which is a nationwide chain, not a single radio station, as dNa imagines, is supposed to have commissioned the study means nothing. Cathy Hughes and Radio One are to radio what Bob Johnson and "Black Evil Television" are to TV--- neither responsive nor responsible to black people.
Finally, white folks love to imagine that we are just like them, only --- well --- darker --- that we view US foreign and domestic policy the same way, law enforcement and many other questions the same way, and that there is no such thing as even the ghost of black solidarity, or a black world view. These things are all, in the mainstream discourse, illegitimate. They are what we at BAR have called "the black consensus". A major point of the USA Today study simply says that the black consensus does not exist.
That ain't true either. But it's what white folks like to believe, and therefore in line with what USA Today might print. I'll leave it there.
I agree with most of what you said, but I think you're being a little too harsh on DNA.
I would need too see more details about this study before accepting it as an accurate reflection of reality.
I would want to know exactly who did they poll. Something tells me that RadioOne didn't have pollsters in every area of our community.
Just to play the devil's advocate here, "If we're not all alike, then why did we vote overwhelmingly for Barack Obama?"
"If we're not all alike, then why did we vote overwhelmingly for Barack Obama?"
You are talking about those who went to the polls. Has anyone looked at the percentage of black voters registered vs. those who turned out to vote?
It is not as simple as one would make it out to seem.
That said, read it. I know I will.
I went straight to the link that describes the "categories" of the AAs that they polled.
It's a very, very politically correct survey. The study categorizes only those who can BUY things "legitimately."
There is no category for the 50% of AA teenage males who drop out of high school, nor the AAs currently imprisoned or the "thugged-out" class...We do not count to "these" marketers.
I'm still reading...
I have to disagree with this and encourage you to give more information. I work with these big companies, ATT, Verizon, Comcast, and while there are areas that aren't served with basic plans they do not divide across racial lines. Mostly it is based on proximity to major areas and I have found the people most affected by this are the Western, non Pacific states which are mostly white. Worst case the Wireless Internet cards work almost everywhere (and I've been to some random places) and the price is standard. But if you have specifics please let me know as I have access to execs at all three companies.
If you do, as you say, work with and have access to top execs at AT&T;, Verizon and Comcast, Pam and you are telling us there is no redlining or cherry picking then you are simply acting as mouthpiece of these corporate actors in this space. I hope these are billable hours for you. If not, they oughta be.
I will say advanced services such as Broadband are generally deployed under the "NFL City" strategy and out from there. So it doesn't matter if you are rich or poor the affect is the same based on how far you are from the target market.
I can't speak to independent companies but i can say, from my experience, price gauging, at least in recent years, is rare. But like I said, I am interested in specific examples and companies.
All people of the same group never think alike. If all Americans don't think alike then why do people think all blacks/AAs think alike? We may vote alike, but that's more in tone with the system in general.