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Upper Hand

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Upper Hand

The Future of Work for the Rest of Us

Wiley,

15 min read
9 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Marginalized communities can chart their own course of upward mobility by joining the technological revolution.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Background
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Big tech and big business have, historically, left people of color out of the conversation while pushing them further to the margins of society. For members of these communities to survive and thrive in the future, they must gain an upper hand by joining the digital workforce. Journalist Sherrell Dorsey has spent her life studying and charting paths of upward mobility for Black and other minority individuals. Through her stories, she identifies ways to close racial and economic gaps, and argues for the importance of diversity in building the future.

Summary

Disinvestment compromises equal workforce growth opportunities for non-white communities.

From the 1950s to the 1990s, many Black families in America moved from poverty into the middle class, thanks to access to affordable education, health care, training programs and new job opportunities opened by the Civil Rights Act.

Sherrell Dorsey, for example, watched her mother go from cleaning houses to obtaining a college degree and becoming a social service worker in child welfare. She later attained managerial positions in nonprofit organizations. Dorsey’s mother even bought a home in 1988.

Unfortunately, today, gentrification and disinvestment compromise social mobility for Black and other minority families. Tech corporations such as Amazon and Microsoft, whose workforces are mostly white, have taken over lower-income neighborhoods and capitalized on state funding for growth. These companies pushed non-white residents out of homes, and family-owned businesses, and deprived them of equal education opportunities, thus limiting their ability to apply for high-paying jobs.

With fewer resources and less access to information, marginalized...

About the Author

Founder and CEO of The Plug Sherrell Dorsey is a data journalist, strategist and entrepreneur.

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