- position on digitial divide.
I see the issue of the transnational immigrant digital divide and racial digital divide in the U.S. as a cultural ideological dividend and as apart of the larger racial/class/caste economic imbalance. I think my first hypothesis on the digital divide largely stems from my experiences as a social media user and as a new found mass media researcher. Shivers (2013) and Benitez (2006) both discuss the cultural ramifications and economic exploitation tech industries pose on folks of color, particularly the transnational immigrant and urban communities of color.
Shivers discusses the Nollywood industry and the huge environmental and economic advantage the industry poses for areas (African nations) that are subjected to e-waste and a lack of mass media exposure. She also discusses how the Nollywood industry, which is based in Nigeria, is kept out of the global tech industry although Africa and in particular countries where Nolly films are popular, produce the raw materials needed for much of our modern tech devices and technologies. This points to the racist and classicist digital divide. A continent that is black rich in resources/production and consumers are denied access to tech industries by way of no access to owning means of tech production (South Africa's economic apartheid particularly around platinum) and cultural ignorance (Western society does not recognize Nollywood or its impact).
Benitez, uses a media ethnography approach to discuss how the transnational Salvadoran's experience is not voiced in transnational digital media platforms. The cultural ramifications for native and immigrant Salvadorans as well as other transnational groups that are not apart of anecdotal discourse on the internet contributes to the lack of cultural competency we see in society, particularly amongst "minorities." The immigration issues at the border highlight how social media and other forms of digital media like blogging can bring exposure to the issues of folks who may or may not identify as Latino but are within the diaspora.
Black and Latino Digital Divide: South Bronx (Mott Haven, Melrose, Hunts Point, Morrisana, Longwood, Soundview), In these neighborhoods the poorest congressional district residents inhibit. I am a resident of Hunts Point and Melrose and can attest to the sub par technological options, economic exploitation in local tech industry and e-waste these communities have. The stories in my local BID sells tech devices at astronomical prices compared to whole sell stores in typical middle class white neighborhoods. On social media stereotypes and racial consumerism presides. My cousin Kareem, an avid tumblr user irrevokably-reem.tumblr.com, attests that most fashion models for particular blogs he follows depict white models in clothes that the industry and companies market to black consumers through social media. I am sure social media blogs such as Tumblr have afrocentric pages for blacks to view, but top sites that Western pop culture "legitama on facebook, stereotyping is prevalent, blacks and latinos engage in the entertainment in order to embody first person paparzzzi. #blackpeoplebelike, #hispanicpeoplebelike, etc.
