A recent Microsoft commercial touts “there is no race, no gender, no age” on the Internet.
To suggest (as Microsoft does) that there is no racism on the Internet is preposterous. The number of African-American and Latin American students in the computer science department can probably be counted on one hand. The situation is not much better for women.
The problem with high technology is it is expensive. Since the Internet is not required for schools, computers and other technologies go to school districts that have the money and community backing to develop the curriculum. Unfortunately, this leaves many poor minority neighborhoods out.
A strong correlation exists between race and technology funding for schools. Members of minority groups will quickly find that the Internet doesn’t just hide names and faces. It also hides the poor from the rapidly developing online communities and increasing funding.
High-tech sexism is different from racism in several ways. Although females are not prevented from having access to computers, much of today’s high technology is developed with males in mind. The number of violent and graphic video games marketed at teenage boys vastly outnumbers the amount of software targeted to both genders or to girls alone.
In a game called “Duke Nukem,” a man armed with a variety of weapons shoots his way through several hundred alien invaders. In the background, women clad in bikinis dance and pose. This game incorporates the highest level of graphics and sound available; it even has tools for network games.
Often, however, games marketed for gender-neutral audiences are built to provide the easiest setup and use, and don’t often push the envelope of modern technology. As a result, the boys playing the violent video games grow up and develop the next generation of high technology, and girls are encouraged to take up support roles, installing software developed by someone else.
Consider the overall forces at work in the rush to develop faster technology. If we don’t look at the issues of equal access to high technology and the growing gaps between those who know and those who don’t know, we run the risk of losing the equality and human rights so many Americans have given their lives to earn.
