FEBRUARY 21, 2018
Portland and Seattle Volume XL No. 21
Opinion ...................................2
Calendars ........................... 4-5
A & E .....................................6-7
Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
25
CENTS
INSIDE:
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Special Edition
ESPRQII (CC BY-SA 3.0) VIA WIKIPEDIA
STATE OF AFRICATOWN
Longer-term residents of Lake Oswego say last
month’s racist incident targeting an African
American student was not isolated.
Racism
in Lake
Oswego
F
amilies affected by racism in the
Lake Oswego School District have
organized a meeting to be held on
the morning of Feb. 26 to talk to
students about Black History Month
and address racist behavior at the
school.
The event comes exactly one month
after an African American student
was handed a note with a racial slur
written on it, sparking local and na-
tional media coverage, a Feb. 5 student
walkout and scrutiny of racial politics
of the wealthy, predominantly White
suburb southwest of Portland.
The district has also seen a shakeup
PHOTO BY KAYLA IRBY, HUNS
See LAKE OSWEGO on page 3
Former FBI Director addresses spying on Black
activists in a discussion with Howard University
students.
Comey Visits
Howard
University
page 9
Kam Gives ‘Black
Panther’ 4 Stars
page 7
MC Dr Renee MCoy, jokes with Chukundi Salisbury, with Showing Up for Youth after introducing him at the 5th annual “State of Africatown: Team African
American African Diaspora” gathering held Feb. 17 at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. It featured presentations on the accomplishments of
the last year, as well as vision, opportunities, and challenges facing the African American and African Diaspora community in 2018 and beyond.
Business Funds Start-Ups with T-Shirt Sales
‘Fund a Founder’ raises capital for Black and female-owned tech companies
By Melanie Sevcenko
For The Skanner News
L
ocal tech entrepre-
neurs Marceau Michel
and Kathryn Brown
have recently turned
a simple retail transaction
into an innovative means
of bankrolling start-ups.
Launched last fall, Fund a
Founder works by offering
anybody a chance to fund
small companies through
the purchase of a custom
T-shirt or hoodie. Shop-
pers can choose between
the ‘Black Founders Mat-
ter’ line or the ‘Fund Fe-
male Founders’ collection,
designed by artists Zephan
Knaus in Portland and At-
lanta resident Will Henry.
Through apparel sales,
Michel and Brown are
looking to take down the
barrier to capital — one
T-shirt at a time.
While offering gifts or
incentives to public do-
nors is nothing new in the
crowdfunding sphere, Mi-
chel said he’s yet to hear of
a tech company that’s do-
ing it with t-shirts.
“It’s definitely a different
approach to fundraising
and supporting minorities
and women in tech,” Mi-
chel told The Skanner.
Yet the genesis of the
campaign came naturally
between friends. “(Kath-
ryn and I) both faced the
same challenges when
it came raising money
for our business. And
we both have celebrated,
award-winning businesses
that no one wants to fund,”
he joked.
Michel’s
on-demand
staffing platform, Werk-
horse, won him the Tech-
stars Startup Weekend,
Portland Pitchfest, and a
grant from Prosper Port-
land. It was also selected
to present at last year’s
AfroTech, the largest Black
tech conference in the na-
tion. In 2018, Michel will
be taking Werkhorse to
TiE Oregon, an incubator
for the state’s newest tech
start-ups.
Likewise,
Brown’s
ScoutSavvy — a career
finding tool for women
in tech — scored her the
2017 Company of the Year:
Pre-revenue Award at
the Oregon Technology
Awards and was a finalist
for the Top Social Impact
Startups for the 2017 Bend
Venture Conference.
But regardless of the ac-
colades and the demand
for their products, the two
Portland entrepreneurs
have run into the same try-
ing circumstance time and
See START-UPS on page 3
Minding the Business of the USDA Forest Service
Contracting officer Stevonne Fuller manages
contracting agreements and logistics
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
S
tevonne Fuller majored in
business and initially consid-
ered a career in finance before
a chance encounter with a re-
cruiter from the USDA Forest Ser-
vice changed her mind.
Originally from Englewood, New
Jersey, Fuller attended Florida A &
M University and graduated from its
five-year master of business admin-
istration program, which grants stu-
dents a combined bachelor’s degree
and MBA after five years of study.
She considered careers at financial
services firms like Ernst & Young,
but then attended a career fair held
by the university and met a Forest
Service recruiter who was also a
FAMU graduate.
“She explained the type of work
See FOREST on page 3
PHOTO BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY
By Christen McCurdy
The Skanner News
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Families talk about their
experiences in Lake
Oswego Schools
Stevonne Fuller is a contracting officer for the
USDA Forest Service.