King of Creampies
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Originally published September 13, 2018 at 6:00 am Updated September 17, 2018 at 10:13 am
State and federal programs aim to ensure minority-owned businesses can compete for government contracts after generations of institutional discrimination. A Lynnwood man long identified as white is using DNA ethnicity estimates to claim minority status.
Ralph Taylor says it doesn’t matter what he looks like. Having lived most of his life as a white man, the 55-year-old now considers himself to be multiracial based on DNA test results.
The owner of Orion Insurance Group in Lynnwood also wants the U.S. Department of Transportation to recognize him as a minority so he can gain more deals providing liability insurance to contractors.
Taylor is suing Washington state and the federal government because he was denied a minority-business certification under a program created more than two decades ago to help level the playing field for minority business owners seeking contracts in the transportation industry. He provided no evidence he has suffered socially or economically because of race.
His case is pending with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Reporter’s DNA ancestry tests ‘caught me off guard’
In 2010 Taylor began identifying himself as multiracial after a DNA ancestry test estimated he was 90 percent Caucasian, 6 percent indigenous American and 4 percent sub-Saharan African.
He applied for state certification with the Washington Office of Minority & Women’s Business Enterprises (OMWBE) so Orion Insurance Group would be considered a minority business.
With no criteria defining a minority race or ethnicity, OMWBE eventually approved Taylor. But that same state agency, which also manages the U.S. Department of Transportation certification, decided he was Caucasian under that program’s procedures and denied his application.
Since then Taylor has pursued an unconventional legal path that raises questions about how the government determines who is and who isn’t a minority. Should it matter what a person looks like? Should they have to prove they’ve suffered discrimination? Can DNA tests prove race or ethnicity? And is Taylor taking advantage of a program by basing his identity on DNA results that some experts consider unreliable?
The OMWBE decides on a case-by-case basis who qualifies for both the state and federal programs it manages.
Gigi Zenk, former communications director for the office, said the programs are designed to provide minority business owners with equal access to contracts as a way of correcting persistent institutional discrimination.
“We work really hard to be fair, nothing is just black and white,” she said. “It’s never just one piece of evidence.”
Yet some who qualified for the program acknowledged they had never been disenfranchised. A Yakima man who qualified for both the state and federal programs said he is about 6 percent African American, looks Caucasian and has never encountered discrimination. Since 2014, the program has helped him win millions of dollars in contracts.
Taylor said the system is broken: “There’s no objective criteria and they’re picking the winners and losers.”
Ralph Taylor (Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times)
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Scientific skepticism
DNA testing is the latest tool people are using to help define themselves, though the results are at best an estimate and at worst inaccurate.
Even the direct-to-customer DNA testing companies, which tout in advertising that customers can uncover their ethnic mix or find relatives, say in fine print that their results should only be used as a hobby.
A CBC News investigation showed suspicious results of several people who took DNA tests from a Toronto lab that helps self-proclaimed indigenous people. One result claimed someone had 20 percent Native American ancestry. The problem was that the sample came from a dog.
We work really hard to be fair, nothing is just black and white.” - Gigi Zenk Hutchins Center for African and African American Research and host of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” learned that he was half Caucasian, with Irish roots.
In 2013, white supremacist Craig Cobb discovered on daytime television that his DNA showed he was 14 percent sub-Saharan African. He denounced the results.
Troy Duster, chancellor’s professor of sociology at University of California, Berkeley, said a white person can try on different identities, even switching back and forth, “but a dark-skinned black can’t claim to be white.”
Rachel Dolezal, a former president of the NAACP’s Spokane chapter, considered herself to be black, but she was born Caucasian. After her own parents stepped forward to say she was white, she was publicly shamed for representing African Americans and resigned in 2015.
The DNA-testing industry has made hundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade, capitalizing on people’s curiosity about their ethnicity and ancestors.
For less than $60, companies boast they can determine a person’s ethnic makeup from a mailed-in swab of the inner cheek or saliva in a vial.
Strands of DNA look like a twisted ladder with an arrangement of molecules, called a DNA sequence. Companies analyze DNA differently using, for example, only the direct male line, DNA passed from mother to child, or a person’s entire genome.
Using proprietary algorithms and databases, DNA companies compare someone’s DNA to a worldwide group of samples they’ve already collected to determine their ethnicity and race, right down to specific countries.
But when a company calculates ethnicity and race, some populations are underrepresented or overrepresented based on how many people are already in that company’s secret DNA database.
Duster, who chaired the ethical, legal and social-issues committee with the Human Genome Project, said the companies won’t tell the public if they have 1,000 or 10,000 people of a specific region of the world.
For example, if a company’s database of Native Americans is small, that could skew someone’s results, saying they have less or no Native-American ancestry.
“You can’t believe these tests because they are based on statistical fiction of 100 percent white, 100 percent German or 100 percent Irish,” he said.
Because of this, Duster said, someone will get different results if they use several DNA companies.
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“Visibly identifiable”
Taylor says the DNA test he took in 2010 changed his life.
Born in Sacramento, Taylor graduated from Washington State University and started Orion Insurance Group in 1995 after stints as a salesman.
The father of three daughters applied for OMWBE’s minority certification for his business in 2013 after getting his DNA results, hoping to get more transportation contracts.
As part of the state’s application process a business owner must submit a photograph, typically a driver’s license or government ID. Those who aren’t “visibly identifiable” based on the photo must submit further proof such as a birth certificate or tribal-enrollment papers.
The agency has no definition of “visibly identifiable,” and there is no manual that describes how employees should interpret someone’s visual appearance in a photograph.
You can’t believe these tests because they are based on statistical fiction of 100 percent white, 100 percent German or 100 percent Irish,” - Troy Duster OMWBE records show.
Through his attorney, Taylor further claimed he was black because of the so-called “one-drop rule,” a concept used historically by governments and white people to promote segregation and disenfranchise those with any African ancestry — “one drop” of African blood.
The office denied Taylor’s certification stating he wasn’t visibly identifiable as a minority. But on appeal Washington state approved him in 2014.
Zenk said she doesn’t know why. Only a handful of people have submitted DNA as part of their application the past five years, she said.
When Taylor applied to OMWBE again — this time for a similar federal-level program with the U.S. Department of Transportation — he had to provide further information when the office questioned him.
Taylor stated he subscribed to Ebony magazine and was an NAACP member. Taylor also provided his DNA results and the 1916 death certificate of a black woman, but officials couldn’t determine if she was related to him, OMWBE stated.
Another finding the office cited: Taylor’s birth certificate didn’t state a minority race or ethnicity.
He was denied certification in June 2014 because he didn’t prove by a preponderance of evidence that he was a minority for the federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program.
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