Abstract:

Since the beginning of human civilization, development of technological tools, devices, processes, and the like have been major forces in human advancement. Our progress towards high-tech has enabled societies to accomplish many things ranging from saving lives to making changes to the natural environment. As such, these advancements have significantly contributed to an increased quality of life as well as enhanced the existence for only a modest proportion of the overall world’s population. The majority of American society living in the United States who have been left out of the digital equation has been African Americans. Much of that omission has been due to the long and lingering history of systemic, institutionalized racism in the nation. Currently, access to technology education and opportunities in the United States is not equitable across various racial or ethnic backgrounds nor socioeconomic demographics, mainly attributed to the lack of essential resources. A myriad of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, and smart phones require internet connectivity. Over the past two decades, research literature has characterized this phenomenon as the digital divide; with a plethora of researchers whose studies’ reveal that the gap has widened significantly. Therefore, this research project has been guided by four research objectives, which include: 1.) Examine the lack of access to technological resources and technology education in K-12 schools located in underserved African American communities, 2.) Examine the lack of access to technological resources trained technical staff in public community centers, libraries and outreach programs located in underserved African American communities and 3.) Examine the extent to which local government officials are focused and intentional regarding reducing the digital divide in underserved African American communities. The methodological approach of this study is qualitative with a research design structured to capture data from several connected qualitative and quantitative sources. Sources of qualitative and quantitative data collected for analysis included the following: examination of local community budget allocations for public library/technology related functions and facility/equipment inventory records in selected underserved African American communities, local community access rates to public library/technology in selected underserved African American communities, interviews of residents in selected underserved African American communities, and interviews of selected government officials who serve underserved African American communities. Data was collected from a selected regional set of underserved African American communities in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Principal findings indicated that access to technological resources for citizens in underserved African American communities remain woefully inadequate. Moreover, government officials who are charged with providing services to those in underserved African American communities do not appear to understand the gravity of the problem or intentional in their efforts to address lingering problems. Unfortunately, the major findings of this study are consistent with the findings of other similar studies regarding the persistent lack of access to technological resources and education in underserved African American communities in the Mid-Atlantic region and other similar regions in the United States of America.

Keywords:

Digital inequality, digital divide, internet connectivity, technology gap, African Americans, lack of access.