IT snafu leads to IBM asking applicants if they are “yellow” or “coloured”

Enlarge / It's a safe bet that IBM CEO Ginni Rometty did not personally review the intern application form. (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
IBM was forced to apologize after drop-down menus on an American recruiting site asked applicants to identify themselves with several racially insensitive terms: 'yellow,' 'mulatto,' and 'coloured.' Unsurprisingly, this sparked outrage on Twitter. A video is available here.
It seems pretty clear what happened here. The form actually had two different menus that said 'Please state your ethnic group'—which is strange on its own. One of the menus asked applicants to choose from options including 'White,' 'Black,' 'Yellow,' 'Mulato,' and 'Not a Brazil National.' The other included 'Afrian,' 'Coloured,' and 'Not a South African National.'
The first menu seems to be a clumsy translation of Brazilian racial categories. The Brazilian census uses the Portuguese word 'amarelo' (yellow) to describe Brazilians of Asian descent. The census also has an official category for 'pardos'—Brazilians of mixed race.
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