Giving Compass' Take:

• Cleveland is implementing various interventions and advocacy-based solutions to address digital and racial divides in the city, with the adoption of broadband at the forefront of the issue.

• How can local donors help Cleveland achieve these interventions? What are the surrounding equity and access issues when it comes to city-wide broadband? 

• Understand how the Digital Equity Act will help address the digital divide. 

All too often, America’s broadband internet gaps mirror its racial gaps. Put most plainly, Black households and neighborhoods adopt broadband at a lower rate than their white peers. While all but 10% of white households have an in-home broadband subscription, 18% of Black households do not. Given the health and equity benefits we know that broadband can deliver to people and communities, this disparity is unacceptable.

Cities and states with racial disparities in health and economic status face a choice: Let broadband become just another marker of racial inequity, or make the choice to support and empower communities of color through equal access to affordable broadband and the digital skills to use it.

Cleveland is one city where civic leaders and local activists are working to close the race-based digital divide through a mix of innovative solutions and institutional advocacy. The challenges that they’ve faced and the successes they’ve earned provide lessons for any region up against similar barriers to equitable broadband adoption.

The city of Cleveland and the metropolitan area it anchors have a long history of racial exclusion and segregation. To this day, it remains racially segregated, with most of the Black population clustered in the eastern side; compared to the rest of the country’s 100 largest metro areas, Cleveland ranks 98th in racial inclusion, with massive gaps in earnings, poverty, and employment.

Broadband adoption is no exception to the region’s list of racial inequities. While the average broadband adoption rate for households in Cleveland’s majority-white neighborhoods is 81.2%, the average is just 63% in Black-majority neighborhoods, based on 2018 American Community Survey 5-year data. Broadband adoption is both a lagging and leading indicator of economic growth and prosperity, meaning these numbers are a sign of the existing economic inequities in Black communities as well as the barriers to greater prosperity in the future.

Read the full article about digital and racial divides by Lara Fishbane and Adie Tomer at Brookings.