WOC Entrepreneurs Archives | South Seattle Emerald

by Beverly Aarons

Picture this: you’ve just got the job of your dreams — high pay, great benefits, and you’re doing exactly what you always wanted. But after a few months, you begin to notice some strange things. You’re never invited to lunch by your coworkers, people distrust you for no reason, and it seems that everyone loves your ideas but only if spoken by someone else. Sounds like a nightmare? It is a nightmare. And for many Women of Color working in STEM, this scenario is more daily reality than aberration. The good news? This reality is about to change. Lorena Soriano, the founder of every POINT ONE, PBC, is on a mission to consign exclusionary and hostile workplace cultures to the waste bin of history. During my telephone interview, Soriano, who lives in Seattle, shared her plans for creating a new reality in STEM.

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by Ashley Archibald

(This article was originally published by Real Change and has been reprinted under an agreement.)

The line to enter the Columbia City Farmers Market stretched down 35th Avenue South, curving down South Ferdinand Street, shoppers standing the designated six feet apart in the shade of the trees of the shuttered Interagency Academy. Vendors stacked fresh vegetables and prepared food on tables that lined each side of South Edmunds Street, tokens of normalcy in abnormal times.

A customer goes shopping at QueenCare on a sunny Wednesday afternoon amid Seattle’s Columbia City Farmers Market. The shop’s owner is promoting self-care, especially for Black people, in a difficult time. (Photo: Susan Fried)

Just a block away, Monika Mathews had a small table of her own set up in front of QueenCare, the natural skincare company that she launched in December 2018. Colorful face masks and dangling earrings next to Black Lives Matter shirts and a handful of her handmade products lay out to tempt customers, as a person filled bottles with handmade products inside the small storefront.

There’s a lot of work to keep up with.

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