Yes, you can collect racial statistics, but the thing that is expressly prohibited is to make a registry where you connect a person with these attributes. The

Yes, you can collect racial statistics, but the thing that is expressly prohibited is to make a registry where you connect a person with these attributes. The idea is that it should be impossible to, for example, get a list of all the communists in an area, or all the homosexuals, or all the moslems, or everyone of African descent. It's a defense of minorities against a future fascist government. Which I think is kind of neat.