ABSTRACT
The government maintains statistics and requires reporting of racial data by federal and state agencies, as well as by certain private sector institutions, in order to facilitate the tracking of social and political inequalities by racial group. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission monitors all private employers, schools, and labor organizations under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, while the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs in the Department of Labor monitors contractors doing business with the federal government. A personal stance against racism does not require acceptance of the false concept of racial categorization; however, the specific means employed by the federal government to monitor and act against racism relies on precisely such a classification system. Federal racial categorization involves the collection and reporting of consistent, transferable racial data for the positive policy purpose of civil rights compliance monitoring.
