Like White, Black, Pacific Islander, etc….
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Because people are interested in knowing if there are huge differences in life outcomes depending on race. Do only black people get the flu? Do Pacific Islanders make more money than other groups? Can only white people get a certain job?
This is especially common in the US because of slavery and civil rights. Both maintaining slavery and civil rights meant keeping track of where black and white people were and how they were doing. So discrimination and anti-discrimination are the reasons why the state is interested in the social concept of race.
It’s probably also the case that this information isn’t always strictly necessary: people who make forms are notorious for over collecting information. Why do you fill in your gender, age or name? Are they always necessary?
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