Downloading the new black community African-Americans turn to the Internet for cultural support and exploration By Lisa Irizarry STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Asia Howard looked forward to moving from her apartment in East Orange -"finally away from 'the hood,' "she says, chuckling about her old city neighborhood.    "I wanted suburbia, a white picket fence, the whole nine," explains the 38-year-old mother of 4-year-old twin boys. "Since I'm divorced, I thought It would be better for us to live In a house - in someplace that was more quiet and safe like where I grew up In Virginia."    She doesn't have the house and the white picket fence yet, but last December she did move to a much larger, newer, two-bedroom apartment in Edison on a quiet residential street. "You have to be careful of what you wish for" Howard adds.    "The place is really nice, but it's also lonely I'm the only black person on the block or in the general area around my house, as far as I've seen," she says, "Now I miss East Orange. I miss seeing people who look like me when I walk out of my front door; and talking with neighbors who really know what I'm talking about. Going online has been my salvation. At least I know there are still people like me out there, and I can chat about things that matter to us.    Whether it be out of isolation or just the desire for a "unique" cultural connection. African-Americans in New Jersey and elsewhere are logging on to the Web in significant numbers. In fact, as blacks assimilate more, Cyberspace could become the new "African-American community" say black Web site and portal users as well as tech officials.    True, blacks have had some catching up to do to gain access to computer technology, but, as a block of users, they are currently outpaclng other cultural and ethnic groups. "We search for each other (on the Web). That's part of our culture... We're a minority. We're so used to there being a few of us. So In college, or somewhere else where we see another of us, we acknowledge each other out of respect. What the Internet allows us to do is kind of digitally nod." - Bo Kemp, president of Vanguarde Neomedia Inc.

A recent American Internet User Survey (a quarterly research report from Cyber Dialogue) found AfricanAmericans to be the largest ethnic minority group on-line, with 4.9 million users, representing 28 percent of the black adult population in the United States.    The report projects blacks will represent 40 percent of the total American Internet population by the end of this year, up 17 percent over last year    "There's a focus and concentration now on our community and there are many sites." says Jesse Rhines, assistant professor of African-American studies at Rutgers University in Newark. "In recent years there's been a real question of whether a black community exists. The Web provides a sense of community.    "I would say the attempt to get into the mainstream is overblown," he says. "Yes, we can have access to the mainstream, but It has kept us out for a long time. As a people we still need to have things that are our own."    New Jersey historian Clement Price says the, Web can give some African-Americans a sense of being close, like neighbors.    "I would say blacks are disproportionately represented on the Internet," he says. "Neighborhoods and communities (of African-Americans) that were settled by the end of World War II in America have been changed by suburbia, urban renewal, and blacks wanting to move up. I think black Americans in particular have always had a dual personality - part cleaves toward mainstream society and another cleaves toward their uniqueness," Price adds. "Black Americans have historically had to cling to their uniqueness. Race is still an issue in the United States far more than religion. language or national origin."       "There are other ethnic groups with sites all over the Internet," says Asia Howard. who works as a nurse. "But we (blacks) have a long history in this country that's like no one else's For so long we had to stay together and live together and fight for our rights. We have a shared experience that makes us relate to each other in a way that goes beyond cultural pride.    "When we're doing things like buying a house, we may have concerns no one else has, like where we can get a mortgage without a hassle because of our race. Even in family life, we have to worry about our kids being put into special education classes when they don't be - long there - that kind of thing."    Whatever their reasons, blacks are choosing ethnocentric sites such as BlackPlanet.com, BET.com and Netnoircom, for meeting, dating, shopping, chatting, discussing Issues and getting information on everything from family life to financial investment.    "Given the opportunity to have access, black people will use the Internet as much if not more than white folks," says Bo Kemp. president of the New York based Vanguarde Neomedia Inc., a digital network of business-to-business properties targeted at urban audiences.    "We search for each other. That's part of our culture," says Kemp, who is African-American. "There are other people trying to search for like minds, but we're a minority. We're so used to there being a few of us. Being in college, or somewhere else where we see another one of us, we acknowledge each other out of respect. What the Internet allows us to do is kind of digitally nod."    Blacks are Vanguarde's core group, says Kemp.    "The historical analogy (to the proliferation of African-American Web sites) would be the late 19th and 20th centuries when there were publications like The Chicago Defender, Crisis Magazine, and Opportunity," Price says. "As the aspirations of blacks heightened after slavery, more modes of communication were established. Anywhere there were blacks, there were magazines, newspapers and organizations (for them). Now you find a proliferation of Web sites."    "I usually go through the sites to see events coming up in the area, or to look up restaurants or new book releases by black authors," says Dudley Pasteur a property and casualty analyst for - Chubb's financial institutions department in Warren.    "They're geared more toward African-American people than the general Web sites, and I like to support our black Web sites even if some are not black-owned," the 24-year-old Newark resident adds. "They have more information as entertainment news."    Bianca McCall of Plainfleld, who says she's in her early 20s, works in technical computer support for a law firm in New York. She is black and says she uses the Web to help promote a new rapper, Ta-Ta (also from Plainfleld). She also logs on for personal use and she loves BlackP1anet.    "I can have conversations and find out who is from Plainfield, and if anyone knows any clubs in New York," Mcall adds. "I found my sister on there last week, and at I didn't realize it - people sometimes use different names. I've met people from high school I haven't run into in years."    The Increase in African American Web users also has the attention of "mainstream" communication companies. Time Warner, AOL and the Chicago Tribune are financing black-oriented sites, advertisers are finding African-American dot-coms to be fertile ground for their products. For more information, go to www.AsianAvenue.com; www.BlackPlanet.com; www.MiGente.com.