{"id":65103,"date":"2021-05-06T12:53:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T12:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foxtail\/?p=65103"},"modified":"2021-05-25T17:03:55","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T17:03:55","slug":"digital-divide-detroit-broadband-internet-access-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/internet-culture\/deep-dives\/digital-divide-detroit-broadband-internet-access-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit\u2019s digital divide reminds us how far America has to go for internet equity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The need for equitable broadband internet access has been a problem since the term \u201cdigital divide\u201d was first coined in the mid-1990s, but these conversations are getting renewed attention as a result of COVID-19 forcing lives online more rapidly in 2020 than ever before. At Mozilla, we are committed to building an internet that includes all people and <\/i>believes<\/i><\/a> that someone’s demographics should not determine their access, opportunities, or quality of experience. Here we explore the digital divide in one of the United State\u2019s most impacted cities \u2014 Detroit, Michigan. <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been 13 months since the global COVID-19 pandemic hit America. The result, nationwide shutdowns and a country mourning the loss of more than 550K Americans that have died due to COVID-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many upper and middle-class Americans, the ever-extending quarantine has meant a slight adaptation, or even a respite<\/a>, from past routines as they largely shifted to working from home. It has meant signing on to their laptops every day at home while they invested in ring lights and headphones for the optimal Zoom experience. For those with kids, simultaneously juggling work and their children’s Zoom classes has created a new set of challenges to maintain some semblance of normalcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for millions of others, the pandemic has meant additional uncertainty. Tens of millions of adults remain out of work. Minority communities and urban centers have been disproportionately affected by not only unemployment, sickness and death, but another systematic inequity: lack of high-speed internet access. It has prohibited tens of thousands of students, and their parents, from making the transition from classrooms and workplaces to video-everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, the digital divide has become a chasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the digital divide?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The digital divide has been described as a \u201cdisconnect\u201d between those who have access to computers and the internet and those who do not. But experts clarify<\/a> by saying it is not simply a \u201cdisconnect,\u201d it is a \u201cgulf.\u201d It is a distance that is becoming increasingly insurmountable and continues to grow as broadband internet access impacts educational attainment and income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two large factors when it comes to the digital divide, income and race \u2014 two statistics that are still troublingly intersected<\/a>. If you are Black or Brown and make less than $30,000 a year, you are significantly less likely to have broadband internet access in your home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Pew Research Center,<\/a> in February 2019, 92% of households with an income of $75,000 or greater had reliable high-speed internet access, compared to only 56% of households earning $30,000 or less. And the same study, updated to look at 2020, showed that 80% of white households had broadband internet, compared to 71% of Black households and 65% of Hispanic households<\/a>. Additionally, while the average American household has 11 devices hooked<\/a> up to the internet, there are still one in five Americans<\/a> who can only access the internet via their smartphones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means for many Americans, particularly Black and Brown people, the lack of reliable internet service has meant that quarantine life, no matter how long it has lasted, has been incredibly difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is happening in Detroit?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The median U.S. income<\/a> prior to the pandemic was $68,703 \u2014 pretty close to that $75,000 threshold where 92% of people have broadband internet access. However, in my hometown of Detroit, the median income<\/a> was only $30,894 going into 2020. Based on these numbers, it should come as no surprise that Detroit is one of the cities with the largest digital divides in the nation. In 2019, 35.6% of Detroit households<\/a> did not have broadband internet. In response, the city hired Joshua Edmonds<\/a> as Detroit\u2019s first municipal Director of Digital Inclusion. His job is to help build a city-wide strategy to combat this gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edmonds explained his role saying, \u201cDetroit doesn\u2019t have the luxury of maintaining the status quo. We get tagged as innovative for things that are, honestly, utterly necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his role, Edmonds works to expand technology in the community by leveraging relationships with community partners, neighborhoods, schools and for-profit companies. While he has previously faced roadblocks in Washington, D.C., he is still optimistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn rural America, the FCC, USDA, they have clear-cut federal funding, recommendations, mandates, and states allocating resources. For a long time, the same wasn\u2019t true for urban centers,\u201d Edmonds says. \u201cThe Rural Opportunity Fund has $16 billion that they’re allocating already on top of more aid that’s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the lockdown of the last year has put the lack of broadband internet access in urban centers, like Detroit, in the spotlight. Senators like Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn, have spoken out<\/a> about the digital divide. And in March, President Joe Biden included broadband internet access in his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan <\/a>infrastructure proposal. After President Biden\u2019s announcement, Jessica Rosenworcel<\/a>, the acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), was quick to respond in support on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Broadband for 100% of us. I'm all in.<\/p>\n

— Jessica Rosenworcel (@JRosenworcel) March 31, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n