Both.  The government orders you to choose a racial identity from a list, "decline to state" or "Other" is not an option.  The results for your area are published and then become a basis for arguing "underrepresentation" of minorities in housing, loans, employment, political office, advertising, television programming, graduation rates, acquittals, etc etc etc.  This in a country that supposedly guarantees equal treatment withotu regard for race.

Also the Obama Administration is not doing a good job organizing this census. Census workers are being hired and fired and rehired after a week, and each rehire counts as a "job created".  Obama brought in a leftist activist group, ACORN, to help go door to door.  This group was nailed for hadning in fake signatures for voter registration drives.  Also Obama wants tighter control of reporting the census results.  The census is the basis for drawing our congressional districts and awarding electoral votes.