As technology increases its already outsized influence on society and shapes our economic and educational opportunities, it’s becoming apparent that marginalized communities are often being left behind. And just as tech creates new lines of highly skilled work, the service-based jobs predominantly filled by Black and Brown workers are put at risk by increasing automation.

In Upper Hand: The Future of Work for the Rest of Us, distinguished data journalist and speaker Sherrell Dorsey delivers an insightful exploration of how we can strategically shape the future of our lives and communities as automation and the world of tech transform the working landscape for everyone, especially for communities of color.

The book offers a series of guidelines, insights, and frameworks for navigating the new world of work―a world dominated by Silicon Valley-rooted technologies, inaccessible networks, and constant automation that continues to decimate jobs among communities of color.

Upper Hand is a handbook to help families and community leaders carve a clear path toward the options available to help people of color survive and thrive in a rapidly changing world. The author forces us to consider which ideas and assumptionswe’re willing to abandon if it means being able to guide the people we care about towards a solution where communities of color are not left behind.

Perfect for managers, executives, and other leaders concerned about increasing levels of technology-driven disparity and inequality, Upper Hand is also an essential read for anyone with an interest in the effects of technology on society and what that means for people of color around the world.

PRAISE FOR UPPER HAND

Upper Hand is a long overdue call-to-action that centers communities of color in the future of work by an entrepreneur that has done the work to ensure Black and Brown voices are visible when we think about the future of business. The industry at large can take notes about how to ensure underestimated communities are not left behind."
–ARLAN HAMILTON, Founder of BackStage Capital, Author of It's About Damn Time

"With style and grace, humor, frankness, and justified audacity, Upper Hand tells many stories about our relationship to technology specifically, and the future of work more broadly. Fascinating stories of family migrations and the serendipities of finding spaces where we can thrive. Riveting tales recounting lives lived and built through the magic of software and freedom to loose our entrepreneurial spirits. These are refreshing stories from the right side of the digital divide―ones rarely known and sparingly told because they powerfully challenge persistent narratives about Black and Brown people’s intellectual, cultural, and technological deficiencies.

On the one hand, Upper Hand reminds us of the many ways that Black and Brown folk have always pushed the cutting edge of technological innovation, whether that takes the form of hardware, software, or transforming spaces of life and work in the pursuit of our own happiness. Perhaps more importantly, the book offers the world a powerful vision of the future where the capacity to aspire, the space to imagine, the freedom to create, and the opportunity to realize dreams are the norm for the rest of us. This vision of the future is all the more compelling given all that this book reminds us about our previous and persistent efforts to create different and better futures for new generations of us."
–CHARLTON MCILWAIN, Vice Provost, Faculty Engagement and Development, NYU Center for Faculty Advancement, Professor, Media, Culture, and Communication