, “On the Wrong Side of the Digital Divide,” shows the impact of the “digital divide” on low-income families and people of color, and the stark challenges that students in these communities are facing during Covid-19.
“It’s a racial and class divide,” explains Moya. “When we looked at the patterns of Internet access – or lack of access – in California, they’re very similar to the old redlining maps from the 1930s and ‘40s. That is, the places that had been ‘redlined’— a deliberate government and private practice of denying lending and investment to neighborhoods predominantly housing people of color— still disproportionately lack home Internet access today.
“Hotspots are a great short-term solution for families that lack Internet access due to cost or other barriers, but they are a Band-Aid,” she explains. “The bigger priority is getting broadband access into communities where it doesn’t exist and upgrading the network where it does exist.”