I've literally experienced the reason these things are needed, sorry friendo.

I'm a white guy so I get people talking as if I'm "one of them" and have had interviews where the guy literally said "it's hard to find white guys for this work, I don't want some Dominican walking in a store we're servicing with our logo on."

There have been studies that have been done using the exact same resume the only difference was the name. One was the typical "John Smith" and the other was a something like "Jamal Brown." There was an overwhelming preference to choose John over Jamal. These things are needed because America is a stupidly racist country whether you want to believe it or not. All you need to do is look at the current administration for proof of that.