EthnicMajority

(Politico) Some of the leading nonprofits and civil rights organizations that have urged federal regulators to approve AT&T’s mega-deal with T-Mobile have former and current employees — and lobbyists — for the wireless company serving on their boards.

Among the groups that have AT&T representatives on their boards of directors and have written to the FCC to back the AT&T/T-Mobile deal are the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the National Puerto Rican Coalition and the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators.

"Over the past several weeks, we have engaged in intensive discussions with AT&T representatives, and with merger opponents. In those discussions, our focus has been on the key issues of the impact of the merger on adoption and jobs. Based on our due diligence, we have now reached the definitive view that the merger deserves to be approved," the National Urban League wrote to the FCC June 20, in a joint filing with the National Action Network.

Rayford Wilkins, AT&T's CEO of diversified businesses, is a trustee on the National Urban League's board.

A similar perceived conflict of interest proved toxic last week for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which came under fire from gay bloggers for weighing in on the AT&T/T-Mobile deal while a former AT&T executive and registered lobbyist, Troup Coronado, sat on the board. Amid the backlash, GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios and eight board members — including Coronado — resigned.

So far, other key minority groups haven’t experienced the same type of internal turmoil for backing AT&T’s proposed T-Mobile purchase.

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(USA Today) When the personal computer revolution began decades ago, Latinos and blacks were much less likely to use one of the marvelous new machines. Then, when the Internet began to change life as we know it, these groups had less access to the Web and slower online connections — placing them on the wrong side of the “digital divide.”

Today, as mobile technology puts computers in our pockets, Latinos and blacks are more likely than the general population to access the Web by cellular phones, and they use their phones more often to do more things.

But now some see a new “digital divide” emerging — with Latinos and blacks being challenged by more, not less, access to technology. It’s tough to fill out a job application on a cellphone, for example. Researchers have noticed signs of segregation online that perpetuate divisions in the physical world. And blacks and Latinos may be using their increased Web access more for entertainment than empowerment.

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(New York Times) The image of the affluent and white cellphone owner as the prototypical mobile Web user seems to be a mistaken one, according to a report published Wednesday by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Center.

The study found that African-Americans and Hispanics continue to be more likely to own cellphones than whites and more likely to use their phones for a greater range of activities.

This increase in mobile Web use, first noticed in a similar study by the Pew Center last summer, is driven both by age and economics, according to Aaron W. Smith of the Pew Center.

Younger people and people living in households making less than $30,000 a year are increasing their mobile Web use at particularly fast rates, he said, and the African-American and Hispanic populations are younger and poorer relative to the white population.

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