ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a contemporary context for the Internet as it relates to race and ethnicity. By examining the racialized dynamics in access (i.e., the “digital divide”), Internet usage (i.e., Black Twitter), and control (i.e., the lack of diversity and inclusion in Internet industries), it examines just how unequal the Internet still is along racial lines. The continued growth and expansion of the Internet requires that we develop the context in examining its ability to maintain whiteness. While the Internet has aided in shaping marginalized communities by increasing their participation in civic society, a manifestation of real-world inequalities in virtual spaces exists and influences their virtual realities. Marginalized users of Internet technologies have identified innovative ways to still participate within Internet culture. The Internet offered a space in which race and other identifying markers could remain hidden or ambiguous. Many of the technological advances of the Internet rose out of an industry with significant disparities along race, gender, and class.
