David Delmar Sentíes at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes DAVID DELMAR SENTÍES—Founder and Executive Director of Resilient Coders—for a discussion of his new book What We Build with Power: The Fight for Economic Justice in Tech.

A Return to In-Person Events

Harvard Book Store is excited to be back to in-person programming. To ensure the safety and comfort of everyone in attendance, the following Covid-19 safety protocols will be in place at all of our Harvard Book Store events until further notice:

• Face coverings are required of all staff and attendees when inside the store. Masks must snugly cover nose and mouth.

About What We Build with Power

What We Build with Power is an urgent call for organizing shared strategies in order to disrupt the tech industry and move toward a more economically inclusive and equitable workforce.

Economic disparities between White, Black, and Latinx workers persist. Activist and organizer David Delmar Sentíes argues that tech is in a position to move beyond empty platitudes and toward an organized workforce that values the economic well-being of Black and Latinx communities.

Delmar Sentíes uses his firsthand experience as the founder of Resilient Coders—a free and stipended nonprofit coding bootcamp that trains people of color from low income communities for careers as software engineers—to highlight how we must identify and dismantle the intentional systemic barriers in tech that are precluding nonwhite people from participating in their cities’ prosperity. He shows how diversity and inclusion initiatives fail, reveals how philanthropic efforts often exacerbate racial inequalities, and argues for a total overhaul of tech culture.

Praise for What We Build with Power

“Through insights from his remarkable nonprofit, Resilient Coders, David Delmar Sentíes offers a provocative invitation to reinvent the tech industry and our economic future.” —Deval L. Patrick, Former governor of Massachusetts

“What We Build With Power is 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