A Man Says His DNA Test Proves He’s Black, and He’s Suing

In 2014, Ralph Taylor applied to have his insurance company in Washington State certified as a “disadvantaged business enterprise.” The DBE program at the U.S. Department of Transportation was originally designed to help minority- and woman-owned businesses win government contracts. So as proof of his minority status, Taylor submitted the results of a DNA test, estimating his ancestry to be 90 percent European, 6 percent indigenous American, and 4 percent sub-Saharan African.

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But Kim TallBear, a professor at the University of Alberta, says this is a misunderstanding of how Native American identity works. Unlike racial categories of black or white, tribal-enrollment criteria is actually quite clear. Each tribe gets to determine who belongs, and membership is often based on tracing direct ancestry to other members of the tribe.

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