Exploring the Digital Identity Divide: A Call for Attention to Computing Identity at HBCUs

The lack of diversity in computing professions has continuously persisted in the tech industry, with racial minorities experiencing less representation than broader marginalized groups. The issue of continuous under-representation for Black/African Americans is especially telling of a pressing digital divide issue. Members of this group comprise roughly 13% of the U.S. population, but disproportionately hold only 5% and 8% of computer engineering and computer science bachelor’s degrees. Studies suggest that computing culture and stereotypes associated with the discipline and its practitioners are among the varied contributors to sociocultural rifts between Black students and computing. This disconnect impacts students’ computational and technological identities, which may result in these students deciding to “disidentify” with computing, and to pursue academic disciplines in which they experience higher self-efficacy. Despite comprising only 4% of U.S. universities, Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) produce 31% of the Black STEM bachelor’s degrees. Still, HBCU computing departments face unique retention issues that impact student matriculation through computer science (CS) degrees. As there are few course-based efforts geared toward cultivating students’ computing identities, this position paper highlights the need for formal attention to the fostering of these identities. It presents HBCU computing departments as key centers for beginning to address traditional computing culture and identity-related attrition issues for Black students. By tackling notions of computing and technology identity in these settings, students are given space to critique and develop their computational identities in ways that support retention in the CS major and degree completion.