# 55. Induced Animosity ## 55.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 55.5.4. Black-boxing This is institutional manipulation where antagonism is induced by systematic means. It works by requiring that citizens or other people divide themselves into predetermined groups. One case is the mandatory classification of Americans by race, ethnicity, religious affiliation and the like in government forms such as the census.55.2 This "black boxing" reinforces people's self-identification as belonging to racial or other groups (often artificially), as opposed to part of a generic American citizenry. In a country respecting the rule of law, such classifications should be irrelevant to the state. But reinforcing such divisions may keep Americans at odds with each other, and divide liberal thinking voters by colour, class, and ethnicity, rather than uniting them via their socio-economic similarities as citizens of the "United" States of America.