This is right up there with the dude who identified as a female to lower his car insurance (take that Geico)
For years he identified as white. Now he’s using a DNA test to claim minority status for his business
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 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 Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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 state 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, the agency eventually approved Taylor. But that same state agency, which also manages the federal Transportation Department 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 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 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,” he said.
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.
Some experts say there is little science behind DNA ethnicity results.
“It’s quite scientifically inaccurate,” said Jennifer Raff, an assistant professor with the University of Kansas anthropology department. “Most in the scientific community would repudiate it.”
Taylor says the DNA test he took in 2010 changed his life.
Born in Sacramento, he 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.
Taylor supplied his driver’s license and his DNA results stating he was 6 percent indigenous American and 4 percent sub-Saharan African.
The company he used — Genelex of Seattle — divided people in its “AncestrybyDNA” results into four populations: sub-Saharan Africans, Europeans, East Asians and indigenous Americans.
No one from Genelex commented for this story, and its recorded phone message said it no longer offers genetic-ancestry testing.
Because DNA results are estimates with margins of error that vary depending on the database of samples for comparison, Taylor could be as little as 2.7 percent indigenous American and 0.7 percent sub-Saharan African, 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 the 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 federal Transportation Department — he had to provide further information when the office questioned him.
Taylor stated he subscribed to Ebony magazine and was an NAACP member. He also provided his DNA results and the 1916 death certificate of a black woman, but officials couldn’t determine whether 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 program.
“It is nonsensical for Mr. Taylor to claim that he has encountered social and economic disadvantage due to a heritage he was not aware of until the DNA test conducted in 2010,” stated an employee who that same year certified Taylor as a minority with the state program.
Taylor said he was disgusted by the decision.
“If I wanted to game the system I would have changed my birth certificate,” he said.
Internally, OMWBE employees compared Taylor to a man who they say was granted federal and state minority status because he provided the required tribal membership card and had 0.39 percent Native-American ancestry.
“Ralph Taylor had more than ten times higher blood percentage,” another employee wrote in an email obtained by Taylor and included in his lawsuit. “This seems dangerously close to preferential treatment to one group to the disadvantage of members of all other groups that do not issue membership cards.”
However, tribal enrollment is a complicated issue that isn’t always linked to fractions of blood and varies from tribe to tribe.
After he was rejected, Taylor filed a federal lawsuit against the OMWBE.
Judge Robert Bryan of the U.S. District Court of Western Washington dismissed the case last year stating the intent of the federal program is to combat racism in the industry and that Taylor’s reliance on his genetic test, “without regard to his appearance, is misplaced.”
Taylor’s attorney Marc Rosenberg appealed the case to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where oral arguments will be heard late this year or early next year.
If Taylor wins, his case could redefine how governments determine minority status for contracting purposes. If he loses, he said, at least he’s brought a conversation about that issue to the forefront.
Taylor said he’s spent up to $300,000 in legal costs trying to expose what he calls a subjective and broken system. He said the state should eliminate the minority part of the program and instead use a business owner’s economic status to qualify.
Birth certificates, which can be changed merely by asking, don’t list ethnic percentages.
In November, long after his denial by OMWBE, he changed his California birth certificate, which once said Caucasian. It now lists him as black, Native American and Caucasian.
For years he identified as white. Now he’s using a DNA test to claim minority status for his business
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 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 Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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 state 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, the agency eventually approved Taylor. But that same state agency, which also manages the federal Transportation Department 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 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 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,” he said.
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.
Some experts say there is little science behind DNA ethnicity results.
“It’s quite scientifically inaccurate,” said Jennifer Raff, an assistant professor with the University of Kansas anthropology department. “Most in the scientific community would repudiate it.”
Taylor says the DNA test he took in 2010 changed his life.
Born in Sacramento, he 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.
Taylor supplied his driver’s license and his DNA results stating he was 6 percent indigenous American and 4 percent sub-Saharan African.
The company he used — Genelex of Seattle — divided people in its “AncestrybyDNA” results into four populations: sub-Saharan Africans, Europeans, East Asians and indigenous Americans.
No one from Genelex commented for this story, and its recorded phone message said it no longer offers genetic-ancestry testing.
Because DNA results are estimates with margins of error that vary depending on the database of samples for comparison, Taylor could be as little as 2.7 percent indigenous American and 0.7 percent sub-Saharan African, 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 the 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 federal Transportation Department — he had to provide further information when the office questioned him.
Taylor stated he subscribed to Ebony magazine and was an NAACP member. He also provided his DNA results and the 1916 death certificate of a black woman, but officials couldn’t determine whether 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 program.
“It is nonsensical for Mr. Taylor to claim that he has encountered social and economic disadvantage due to a heritage he was not aware of until the DNA test conducted in 2010,” stated an employee who that same year certified Taylor as a minority with the state program.
Taylor said he was disgusted by the decision.
“If I wanted to game the system I would have changed my birth certificate,” he said.
Internally, OMWBE employees compared Taylor to a man who they say was granted federal and state minority status because he provided the required tribal membership card and had 0.39 percent Native-American ancestry.
“Ralph Taylor had more than ten times higher blood percentage,” another employee wrote in an email obtained by Taylor and included in his lawsuit. “This seems dangerously close to preferential treatment to one group to the disadvantage of members of all other groups that do not issue membership cards.”
However, tribal enrollment is a complicated issue that isn’t always linked to fractions of blood and varies from tribe to tribe.
After he was rejected, Taylor filed a federal lawsuit against the OMWBE.
Judge Robert Bryan of the U.S. District Court of Western Washington dismissed the case last year stating the intent of the federal program is to combat racism in the industry and that Taylor’s reliance on his genetic test, “without regard to his appearance, is misplaced.”
Taylor’s attorney Marc Rosenberg appealed the case to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where oral arguments will be heard late this year or early next year.
If Taylor wins, his case could redefine how governments determine minority status for contracting purposes. If he loses, he said, at least he’s brought a conversation about that issue to the forefront.
Taylor said he’s spent up to $300,000 in legal costs trying to expose what he calls a subjective and broken system. He said the state should eliminate the minority part of the program and instead use a business owner’s economic status to qualify.
Birth certificates, which can be changed merely by asking, don’t list ethnic percentages.
In November, long after his denial by OMWBE, he changed his California birth certificate, which once said Caucasian. It now lists him as black, Native American and Caucasian.