(Editor’s note: This is the 21st installment in a monthly series speaking with minority business owners and leaders. Each are asked their views on minority-business conditions in the state and for ways to improve those businesses’ chances for success. See previous installments
here.)
Most of the people George Metz does business with probably don’t know he’s Native American.
Why would they?
Nothing in his appearance, his name or his Johnston accent hints at his Indigenous heritage.
For those who assume he’s white, Metz doesn’t tell them any different. It’s not that he’s hiding his Montauk and Narragansett tribal roots, but he wants G. Metz Moving and Storage to be known for its service, not his minority status.
“I’d rather get the work based on our skills and level of care,” he said.
That’s the philosophy that has guided Metz’s approach to life since childhood. He never talked about his Native American heritage with classmates or friends, but he gladly embraced traditions such as attending Narragansett annual meetings with his family. The day he was old enough to get a tattoo, he adorned his upper right arm with a Native American dreamcatcher, his “badge of honor.”
But soon after starting his company, he had to reexamine the wall he’d erected between his private, Native American identity and his public persona.
About a year after launching his Seekonk-based moving and storage operation, in 2012, Metz applied to get certified through Rhode Island’s Minority Business Enterprise program. The program requires a certain percentage of annual state contracting dollars be awarded to recognized, minority-owned businesses, including those owned by Native Americans.
He struggled over whether to even apply. He didn’t want handouts based on his ancestry, and he hadn’t faced the kind of discrimination experienced by others in the minority business community whose racial or ethnic identity was more obvious. But he also wanted to expand his business and thought the minority business program would give him the foot in the door he needed to win state contracts.
Professional goals eventually won out over personal misgivings, and he became certified.
He still goes back and forth about how he feels about the minority-business label.
On the one hand, he considers himself perhaps the purest embodiment of “minority” by definition. Metz is one of three companies identified as American Indian-owned on the state roster, compared with the women-owned businesses that fill half the list.
But he’d rather get contracts because of his company’s reputation than his minority status. And sometimes, he thinks that minority designation hurts him more than it helps.
“When people hear that we’re a minority-owned business, they sometimes think we can’t handle the project,” he said. “They rope us in with other minority-owned companies they’ve worked with in the past and think we’re too small or we’re unequipped.”
Small and unequipped are descriptors he rails against, having grown his company to what he says is one of the largest moving businesses in the state, with a 25-person team, three warehouses and a fleet of trucks.
Another problem: Metz finds himself having to “prove” his minority status to those who don’t think he looks like a Native American. When his company installed the clear plastic partitions between desks in the R.I. Statehouse during the pandemic, some wondered why a minority-owned business wasn’t included in the work.
Critics fell silent once they realized his company was, in fact, a minority-owned business. But Metz was still bothered.
“Sometimes I get upset about that,” he said. “Why does a minority have to look a certain way?”
1. Do you believe racism is keeping minorities from starting businesses in the Ocean State or succeeding when they do? I personally do not think that racism is stopping people from opening a business. If a person wants to open a business, they’re going to open a business no matter what is in front of them, no matter what their challenges are. Depending on the industry, it could make it harder for them to be successful. If they’re in a restaurant business and a minority, for example, it might be harder to find the right clientele for that business. But there are a lot of benefits for being a minority business [through the state certification program], and I would encourage them to look at those. Racism is something people have dealt with going back to the beginning of time, but also people have overcome it.
2. How dependent is your business on the support of other minority groups? Is that a sustainable business model? I don’t want to say yes or no. Rhode Island is a community of a lot of minorities, and we rely on our community to keep us going. It’s not a target for us, though.
3. What one thing could Rhode Island do to boost the odds for minority-owned business success? Rhode Island, for the most part, does a pretty good job of that through the state minority contracting program. But one thing the state could do better is to make sure minority businesses understand what services they offer. For the first stretch of my certification through the state, I never understood what came with that, such as education and contracts and other supports. There’s no welcome packet saying, “Here you go. This is what you get.”
4. Have you had to turn somewhere other than a bank for a loan? Do you believe the state’s lending institutions generally treat minorities fairly? There was a time when we had to seek alternate finances through a third-party, high-interest lender because we didn’t have enough working capital while waiting on payment from some other jobs. I don’t believe it was because we were a minority. Since then, we have secured a $300,000 loan through R.I. Commerce [Corp.] to pay off that previous, high-interest loan. If anything, I think being a minority-owned business helped us with that, to get moved to the front of the line with the state.
5. If another minority entrepreneur asked you where they could turn to for support for their business, where would you direct them? I would direct them to the [R.I.] Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the state and say what they’re looking for. If they don’t have the right answer, they are going to know who to send you to.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.