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What We Build With Power: The fight for economic justice in tech

This is a historically conscious manifesto calling for worker organizing, led by Black and Latinx technologists. It was written in the city with the deepest income inequalities in America, across the river from the most prestigious universities in the world. It's a book of paradoxes and uncomfortable truths.

This book has a specific purpose: We are in dire need of a shift in culture, as the next few years bring about the end of the jobs on which our communities of color depend. We need you with us.

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Don't hand me a glass of water from your reservoir when you have the power to break the dam.

A free society is one in which people don’t have to spend all of their time working in order to survive. In fact, the presence of an entire class of people who need to give their lifetimes over to their labor just so they can continue to live is symptomatic of a society that is not free. The working poor, disproportionately Black and Latinx, deserve economic justice.

Meanwhile, the tech community continues to fail to understand not only the roots of the crisis of representation but also the reasons for which it really matters. As long as we're not talking about the systemic dynamics and imbalances of power -- their history, as well as their persistence today -- tech will continue to miss the point. We need to fundamentally transform tech culture, and we need to support that transformation with systems of accountability. No more talk without action. And no action without clarity of objective.

Buy your copy of What We Build With Power: The fight for economic justice in tech.

Want to read more? I shared, on Shepherd, my book recommendations for advocates of economic justice who want more than a recounting of history.

What people are saying

“Through insights from his remarkable nonprofit, Resilient Coders, David Delmar Sentíes offers a provocative invitation to reinvent the tech industry and our economic future.”

Former governor of Massachusetts Deval L. Patrick

"An incredible breakdown of how oppression and discriminatory systems impact the education and hiring of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. David has provided depth, data, experience, and knowledge in one necessary, easy read that details the whys and hows around how you either contribute to or are a victim of systemic barriers, and where progress needs to be made."

Pariss Chandler, founder and CEO, Black Tech Pipeline

"Finally, a leader in tech workforce development confronts head-on the issue of poverty and race in the industry. Delmar Sentíes is a warrior for equity, and he confronts both our assumptions and our biases in a way that rips away the bandaid solutions that we've accepted and leaves us thinking about how we can truly bring equity to the field."

Sheila Ireland, President and CEO, Philadelphia OIC

"This is compelling and informative reading for anyone in the business of making workforce development work. If you’re dissatisfied with the status quo, with incremental progress, and one-off victories -- and you should be -- you will be energized by this book. As a technologist and founder, David brings his expertise and experience to bear highlighting current practices and laying out pathways toward catalyzing true change. What We Build With Power is calling us to think bigger, to go deeper, and to shake systems in order that transformative economic inclusion and justice can finally take place in tech."

Daisy Magnus-Aryitey, Co-Executive Director of Code the Dream

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