But computers still aren't simple to acquire or use, especially those that hook up to the Net and the Web. They remain expensive and require access systems, software, and a range of skills to be used effectively. And research suggests that an inverse kind of cultural bigotry at work in this problem - some minority underclass kids deem computers the unfashionable toys of white geeks, not a group to which many minority teens aspire. There is more content by, for, and about the African-American community on the Net than there is in probably any other medium. There's still a mythology that this isn't for us, that this is for scientists or upper income people or for geeks.
American participation is sporadic, but it can be intense.
Obviously, some blacks write and don't identify themselves by race. But columns on Tupac Shakur, rap music, the coverage of the Atlanta Olympics, the alleged CIA plot to flood Los Angeles neighborhoods with crack, the movie Amistad, and the coverage of the O. J. Simpson trial drew scores, sometimes hundreds of email messages from blacks identifying themselves as college students or professionals, especially in government and academia. This email tide suggests that material of African-American interest on the Web gets printed out and redistributed to many other blacks who don't have computer access. Email from teenagers also flows in a steady stream. But email from teenagers who identify themselves as black is very rare.