Jack and Jill Politics - Latest Comments in BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

rac breakdown recovery uk — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:21:13 -0000

well those are sort of encouraging figures

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

agentX — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:15:13 -0000

Alright! New system!

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.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Pamela — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:51:00 -0000

I don't discount what you are saying, I've heard many complaints of over the years about the level of access from many groups in multiple areas from multiple demographic groups. I was just asking for specific areas you are concern with. I can look into Lawndale and Ford Heights.

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.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Bruce Dixon — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:23:00 -0000

Both the existence of the digital divide and the fact that the business model of cable and telecom companies has always been based on cherry-picking (providing service to so-called "high value customers) and redlining (denying service to poor and minority areas) are well established as historical facts and as accurate statements of current corporate telecom and Big Cable policy, Pam --- established well enough to have been the subject of many, many legislative and regulatory hearings, and to have been remarked upon in many, many authoritative books and studies on the media regime. Paul Starr's Creation of the Media, for example contends that these have been the business model of the big phone companies since the very start of telephony more than a hundred twenty years ago. The evidence of these practices is so widespread and readily available as to be just undeniable, except by people who "...work with these big companies, ATT, Verizon, Comcast..."

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.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Pamela — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:49:00 -0000

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.

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.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Angela — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:13:00 -0000

As a Native American...this makes me laugh. Just because I am a Native American, most non Natives don't have a clue about the number of Native American tribes there area and don't understand there are tribal rituals, etc that are different. We are looked upon as a monolithic group of people. Stereotyped truth be told.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Bronze Trinity — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:37:00 -0000

Its funny that black folks have figured out those darned internets John McCain hasn't lol!

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Webb — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:53:00 -0000

Thanks Dr. Dixon!

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...

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Bruce Dixon — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:28:00 -0000

The study itself, much more useful than the USA Today fluff piece, can be found here. Bear in mind of course that Yankelovich conducts its surveys for the sole and express purpose of marketing to us, They are not friends of black or any other kind of humanity. They are marketeers whose job it is to get under our skins, inside our motivations and ensure that everything we do makes money for their clients.

That said, read it. I know I will.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Craig Hickman — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:25:00 -0000

Bruce Dixon, I hear you loud and clear.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

RhondaCoca — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:07:00 -0000

Mr. Dixon, thank you for your usual insightful information.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

RhondaCoca — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:43:00 -0000

Webb, you said:

"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.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Webb — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:10:00 -0000

Hey Mr. Dixon,

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?"

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Bruce Dixon — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:06:00 -0000

The conclusions of the USA Today story which this post uncritically echoes are deeply, deeply suspect for many reasons.

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.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

artchess — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:09:00 -0000

They had to have a study to prove that? That's a little offensive.

Re: BREAKING: Black People Not Actually All Alike

Jill Tubman — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:50:00 -0000

Thanks for sharing this dnA. This is really important info that will help folks re-assess the African-American audience and how best to reach us. I actually talk a lot about the new digital divide which falls along income and educational lines. Which tends to account for some of the lingering disparity in online use as minorities still suffer more from poverty and inadequate access to quality education.