Few will be surprised to hear that there is a digital divide in this country, but new Commerce Department data gives policymakers detailed data about the nature of the gap. Perhaps the most interesting finding is that, even when controlling for income and education, there is a 10% gap between African-Americans and whites in broadband usage, and a 14% difference between Hispanics and whites. Rather amazingly, a number of the stories about the report, such as this one from the San Jose Mercury-News, overlooked this extremely important data. Cost is, of course, a major barrier, but many non-users see no value in having access. This suggests that education must be a major priority.

Report: Racial Inequalities Persist Online

Despite widespread increases in use of broadband internet, the Web today still doesn’t accurately represent the racial demographics of America.

That’s the take-away from a report on U.S. broadband adoption, published Monday by the Department of Commerce.

“An African-American household at the same income level and with the same education level as a white household is still less likely to have broadband access and use the internet,” said Rebecca Blank, one of the report’s authors and the undersecretary for economic affairs at the Department of Commerce.

MORE:
CNN.COM