No it has nothing to do with racism, psycho author.
No, they have a point. Historically a lot of these norms were established for that purpose, just like the origin of homeowners associations. You'd be surprised by how much is there if you dig down further.
Plus, as others have pointed out here there's plenty of jobs where nitpicking like this is detrimental due to passing on skilled workers for a dumb reason
That being said, holy shit that pivot was too hard. The abruptness just detracts from their point