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IBM Apologizes For Racial Slurs On Its Recruitment Webpages (theregister.co.uk)
The Register: IBM has apologized after its recruitment webpages asked applicants whether their ethnicity was, among other options, the racial slurs Yellow and Mulatto. In online application forms for positions within the US tech giant, in among other questions ranging from military veteran status, and eligibility to work in America, a bizarre drop-down menu asked whether jobseekers were Caucasian, Black, or Indigenous, as well as the aforementioned insults. The Register was first alerted to the baffling error on Monday by an engineer who tried to apply for a technical role at IBM earlier this month, and was stunned by the slurs listed for a mandatory input field labeled: "Please state your ethnic group."
A singular cartoon metaphor for the Trump administration?
"Mulatto" may have its roots in "mula"... "mule" in English. Being the sterile offspring of a horse and a donkey and used as an often-overworked pack animal, it's not a complimentary term.
-- Insert witty one-liner here. --
Blame the disparate impact judicial reasoning. To prove that one is an equal-opportunity employer, it isn't enough that you don't discriminate; you must be able to prove that you don't have practices that unintentionally result in "discriminatory" outcomes. And in order to prove that, they must collect racial data, so that under disparate impact analysis, they can prove that their hiring practices don't have a discriminatory result.
Per Google search, using the search phrase, "etymology of mulatto":
so it was from Spanish, and does have to do with mules.
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve