My mom got her first computer a few weeks ago. She sent her first e-mail a couple days ago. Yes, at 68 she is now a pedestrian in cyberspace.

I descend from a line of merchants, with my very first memory having been in my great aunt’s store in the Irishtown section of Basseterre, St. Kitts. My mother worked in that store as well. From time to time the old merchant in her will spring an idea as to how best to put her capital to work. I have no doubt that she will eventually go through the same thought process as she learns how to use her lap top.

My nine-year old son is following his ancestors’ footsteps. The word “career” flows out of his mouth easily and probably more often than most teenage and twenty-something knuckleheads I see running around these days. With a “low on minutes” cell phone to their ear and pants low on their waists, young people today appear to be carrying on the same silly, consumer centric behavior of their parents and grandparents, only this time in digital form.

When I think about the level of unemployment we minorities face in this country and the poor performance of our gross domestic product, all I can conclude is that we have to pursue a different mindset. We are, in the words of my sister, addicted to a narrative that we just can’t seem to shake.

Writing for the MMTC’s Broadband and Social Justice blog, Ava Parker posted a piece that highlights the fork in the road consumers of digital technology now face. Do we continue with a mindset focused primarily on consuming communications and entertainment, or do we start turning our mobile information access terminals into productive capital and use this capital to create another source of equity; equity that allows us to weather the next financial or economic crisis.

A blog post on Media Matters for America’s website spent so much time emphasizing an alleged and tenuous conflict of interest involving Henry Rivera and AT&T that it completely missed the very significant issue of what a failure to approve AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile USA would mean to minority access to the Internet.

Pew Research found that while 59% of adult Americans go online via wireless devices, blacks and Latinos are more likely to own a cell phone (87%) versus whites (80%). In addition, 64% of African Americans and 63% of Latinos access the Internet via wireless devices.

This data supports Mr. Rivera’s view that AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile should be approved. Since T-Mobile is not in a position to expand its 4G network, blacks and Latinos would not enjoy the benefits of expanded 4g coverage, at least in the short run.

The National Council on Negro Women expressed their support for AT&T’s bid to purchase T-Mobile USA. The civil rights group expressed that it was important that underserved minority communities get online access to healthcare, education, and career resources. Should we be denied access to these services because of capacity issues? Opponents of the transaction seem to think so.

Were it not for groups like the National Council on Negro Women, there would be no one to vigorously address the issue of the digital divide. The only thing I hear from Sprint, Free Press, and Public Knowledge is the usual paranoid ranting of why AT&T being big is supposed to be bad for everyone.

Opponents never make a case for why allowing T-Mobile USA to eventually go out of business would be good for solving the digital divide issue. They never argue why denying the purchase will help make spectrum available in rural or underserved urban areas.

Groups like the National Council on Negro Women are properly tying the social justice arguments with the economic arguments that support the acquisition. Public Knowledge, on the other hand, would rather scare people into believing that there is going to be some horrific change from the current market structure to something so utterly gruesome that it will be Armageddon for consumers.

What are we going to see after the sale is closed? The very same market structure that exists today; an oligopoly.

So kudos to the National Council on Negro Women for seeing past the smoke and mirrors of the opponents’ arguments.

Latoya Livingston shared her remarks on net neutrality before the Penn/Fordham Digital Diversity Workshop recently held in New York City.

Ms. Livingston lays out a cogent and valid argument for allowing strategic partnerships between minority content providers and broadband access providers. Her analysis that paid prioritized services for larger content providers will bring in greater revenues that can be used to pay for upfront network costs is also economically sound.

This market approach provides a faster and more efficient mechanism for promoting the adoption of broadband among minority communities while providing entrepreneurs access to broadband networks for delivery of their content.

Two technological achievements amaze me still to this very day: airplanes and cell phones. I’ve often said I’d rather be in the cockpit of a Cessna flying from Frederick to Baltimore rather than driving five minutes to the grocery store. It’s a lot safer and saner in the air.

The telephone also amazes me. I still look at it as two cans connected by a string, but with a bunch of electronics that help to boost the signal. Cell phones are even more amazing, but in the end are merely suped up radios. When you look at the history of cell phones and airplanes, their early uses share a common thread: productivity.

Both technologies were developed and promoted to make commerce easier. While one technology carried mail and business passengers, the other carried voice messages. Today the cell phone can do much more than carry voice messages, but as an article by the Associated Press’ Jesse Washington points out, minorities are not doing much with today’s 4G technology except for entertaining ourselves.

Mr. Washington described how African Americans and Latinos appear not to be using mobile technology for productive purposes, placing a greater emphasis on video games and social networks. It’s too bad, especially given the Obama administration’s push to build out our digital infrastructure. It’s part of his winning the future vision.

But if we are to out-compete, out-build, and out-innovate in order to get our economy moving again, I think that all portions of the population will have to focus on the substance of commerce and creation. So far I haven’t come across much of any policies designed to inspire a productive mindset versus the uber-focus on consumption.

Entertainment is good. It’s fun. Just ask Justin Bieber. But given the state of joblessness, and the restructuring of the workplace and its needs, I’d prefer some of Esperanza Spaulding’s depth right about now.