Dr. Ernest J. Wilson III comments on the technology revolution and African American competitiveness

Dr. Ernest J. Wilson III, associate professor of government and African American studies at the University of Maryland -- with a doctorate and a master's degree in political science from the University of California-Berkeley and a bachelor's from Harvard -- has been consulting with international organizations and scholars in such places as Malaysia, Morocco, and Brazil about the implications of the technological revolution that is changing the nature of scholarship and society for many years. The information revolution is, as he puts it, "really big stuff."

And yet...

"As African Americans," he says, "the perspective we can bring to this revolution is more than a touch of skepticism."

The following are edited excerpts from a conversation Wilson had with Black Issues senior writer Karin Chenoweth.

What kind of skepticism are you talking about?

There are two points of skepticism: first, that this is the hyperbole economy. It may be [that] a lot of this technology stuff is hooey. As Americans, we like new stuff. We like instant coffee, and all the things have to be the newest and the latest. This may just be satisfying our national cultural propensity for killing the past and anticipating the future. It may be like eight-track [tapes]. Remember, people said cable television -- would revolutionize television and it hasn't. So it may be not the digital revolution but the digital change.

On the other hand, it may be really important. And I think for African American educators, even if it isn't a revolution, it's still important. Whenever these things come up in the United States, if the group you're a member of is already at the bottom of society, the perspective one brings to the national debate is how much worse off is my community likely to be?

It seems as if this is the first industrial revolution in which African Americans have the possibility of not being left behind.