I don't really think it's the best way to solve things, either. It's more of a top-down approach when we need a much more radical bottom-up approach to work on fixing such issues deeply embedded in our society. I've never been outright asked my race in person, though applications have asked. They always (in my memory) had the "decline to state" option or were optional entirely. Most applications didn't ask me at all, I think, but school applications definitely did.