> in 1966 I discovered that something very good had happened: the race question had disappeared from the security clearance form. In fact, this question disappeared from nearly all government forms then. I liked to think I helped that change along.
> I have argued that all historical and present racial and ethnic classification systems for individuals are nonsensical and so are the laws, court decisions, computer applications, and bureaucratic superstructures that have been built on top of them.
I’m regularly asked that question in official contexts in the last few years. American companies make hiring decisions now based on racial identification. Big companies even require their vendors and service providers to factor race into staffing decisions.
It’s illegal under American law, but in the last decade or so corporate HR departments have gotten some funny ideas.
If you as an employer were to take _any_ actions based on that information it would be illegal.
So after you get hired and provide that information for government statistics collection, why would your employer ever need to ask you for it afterwards?
Because your employer wants to collect statistics too.
Virtually every good joke could be considered, "inflammatory" by someone.