You answering the census will not help your future generations unless everything burns down but the halls of government. Previous census recording were done on a localized version and that is where those records came from.
Also, they always have recorded the race of the person. It may have been considered important in an era when there were really only two races (except for a few Indians) and when there were lots of governmental policies that related to race. Now, racial distinctions should be eliminated by the government, not perpetuated. I think that statistic should not be collected.