The digital divide: they gave us "vehicles” but no keys

What Black girls and women need to reverse the digital illiteracy trend that can quietly lock away their futures

Black girls are prolifically online but we’re rarely taught how to own the terrain we’re navigating. image credit: Shutterstock 

The digital divide isn’t always lack of access or silence. Sometimes it’s just noise.  “Google is free” or the even snarkier, Here, let me Google that for you rain down as common retorts to just about any seemingly basic question. We see screens glowing in every hand and assume it means everyone has every bit of information they could ever want at their fingertips. But connection isn’t necessarily access. And access isn’t necessarily power.

Black girls sit at a uniquely fragile intersection of the digital divide. We’re often early adopters of social technology, prolific communicators and cultural innovators online, yet we’re among the least likely to be guided toward the kind of digital fluency that translates into leadership and influence over the systems shaping our lives.  

Technology arrived in our homes and the palms of our hands without instruction, infrastructure or invitations to rooms where digital skills are cultivated.  

In many communities, especially Black rural ones, smartphones are the primary avenue to the information superhighway. Scrolling Threads, watching YouTube shorts and TikTok videos (even if educational) aren’t the same as using technology as a tool for employment, research and civic engagement. Without skills to do these things, they’re in a land of wander while locked out of opportunities.   

What are now considered rudimentary digital skills at this point (e.g., attaching a file to an email, creating a simple spreadsheet) can be barriers when there hasn’t been some digital training. The National Skills Coalition reports one-third of U.S. workers lack foundational digital skill, while 92% of jobs now require digital skills, which leaves far too many of us without an ability to participate in the workforce in ways that lead to advancement. We’ve seen it ourselves with program participants at The Lighthouse – young people who’ve never heard of Google Scholar, used a desktop or laptop and others who didn’t know how to form questions for a search engine that would yield useful results. Such gaps aren’t solely about ability. They reflect uneven access to devices and broadband, yes, and the training that quietly shapes who can participate fully in modern spaces, from classrooms to boardrooms. 

Further, this skills gap hits Black girls and women especially hard. Though Black women are one of the most educated demographics in the U.S., our peers are, simultaneously, dramatically underrepresented in high-paying technology fields and helping shape digital expertise. As you might expect, the pipeline (or lack thereof) starts much, much earlier.    

Black girls sit at a uniquely fragile intersection of the digital divide. We’re often early adopters of social technology, prolific communicators and cultural innovators online, yet we’re among the least likely to be guided toward the kind of digital fluency that translates into leadership and influence over the systems shaping our lives.  

“Only 19% of computer science degrees are earned by women and less than 2% of tech roles are held by Black women,” according to Black Girls Code. “The biggest drop-off in tech engagement happens between ages 13 and 17, right when confidence is tested and futures are shaped.” 

Said simply: Black girls are online but are rarely taught how to own the terrain we’re navigating. 

There is a flip side: early exposure and mentorship 

Black Girls Code believes early exposure and mentorship can quickly reverse the digital illiteracy trend. Fighting unfamiliarity with immersion in technology and a welcoming environment through workshops as early as possible makes a difference. The organization claims girls are “55 percent more likely to pursue” technology-related careers when partnered with a mentor. This builds confidence and a sense of belong in spaces where Black girls (specifically) and people (generally) have been historically excluded.  

Access still matters, but isn’t the whole story 

There’s no reason to believe someone holding a phone most of their waking hours has the kind of skills necessary to reach their true potential in this tech-savvy world. A lack of broadband infrastructure continues to shape the landscape, especially in Southern rural communities. Pew Research Center reported as recently as January that much of the problem comes down to the lack of availability of broadband in rural and urban Black communities. 

“Black and Hispanic adults are … less likely than white or Asian adults to subscribe to broadband,” reports Pew, adding this population generally fill the void by nearly exclusively using smartphones and data plans for their internet use. But a phone is no substitute for a computer or workstation. 

In Belzoni, Miss., there’s only one provider of hard-wire internet, and its unreliability limits educational and economic opportunities. Resident Antoinette Walls says, “We use Belzoni Cable, but the wind can blow and it’s out. Just last night we were sitting up in the house watching Roku and — BAM! — out goes the internet for 20 minutes,” says Belzoni resident Antoinette Well. “… When we were out during COVID and doing study-at-home, it really sucked around here because of the internet.” 

For Black girls and women, the stakes are even higher. The data desert complicates (and can even obliterate) a child’s changes of completing schoolwork or transition into post-grad life. Howard E. Bailey, former dean of students at Western Kentucky University, told the Connected Nation technology suffuses college and university life. From scheduling classes to paying tuition, doing research to contacting professors, there are hundreds of tiny little devastating ways to flub, when you’re unfamiliar. Digital fluency increasingly shapes who controls narratives and who designs the technologies that govern our day-to-day lives. 

Poverty, isolation and high stakes 

So much of digital inequity is deeply intertwined with poverty and geographic isolation, as is common in a capitalist society. Roughly 33% of those households that earn less than $30,000 use smartphones for their internet, compared with 4% of those earning $100,000 or more. Nicol Turner Lee, of the Brookings Institution, wrote in 2022 that digital literacy, broadband availability and affordability and are not enough to fill the digital disparity.  

“… [T]he need for computer skills and access has grown exponentially, changing how individuals interact. Yet politicians have still failed to bridge the digital divide,” Turner Lee wrote. 

Whole communities lack both reliable access and substantive digital literacy, consequences ripple outward.  Without intentional intervention, existing inequalities risk permanent coding into the future. And yes, programs that combine skills training, mentorship and culturally responsible learning environments help, but the require deep and sustained investment. A donation of MacBooks and Chromebooks here and there won’t do. 

The digital divide isn’t just about underground cables and wi-fi strength, it’s a question of who’s prepared to shape the future and who’s expected to merely consume it. The most dangerous divide isn’t between who’s online and who’s off, it’s between those who know how to use technology to create digital and virtual pathways for themselves, means of reparations, and those who’ve never learned they could. digital and virtual pathways for themselves, means of reparations, and those who’ve never learned they could.