The Dade County School Board told a computer consulting firm, equally owned by a black and a Hispanic, that it was not a minority-owned business. In the county's definition, a business can qualify as minority owned only if one minority group controls 51 percent of its assets. Because Charles Duval, a black man originally from the Caribbean, and Paul Raifaizen, who came to the U.S. from Argentina, each own 50 percent of Data Industries, the company was ruled ineligible.

Henry Fraind, spokesman for the School Board, says he sympathizes with Data Industries, but insists that "a rule is a rule, and our rule says that there must be 51 percent ownership by one principal minority group." "We're just trying to preserve the integrity of the system," he says, explaining that the county wants a "clear-cut" owner to avoid having minority businesses "sell out to white males."

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