Digital Literacy, the Pandemic, and Racism: A Cascade of Inequitable Events Demanding Action from Adult Education

The 2020 COABE Digital Literacy and Technology Integration Strand Meeting convened in highly unusual times. Firstly, adult basic skills programs across the country were in the midst of operating completely remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, additionally, the country was searching for a path forward after a national racial reckoning motivated by a surge of protests against White supremacy in the U.S. in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. The two events made existing racial inequities and related economic, social, education, health care and other endemic disparities impossible to ignore and catalyzed a broad movement to protest against them. As a strand, we decided to convene in to explore how we might help to mitigate issues of digital exclusion in the Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities of learners we all serve.