that/who are (3)

[ShirleyLing]

In this room, there are five people who/that are White, seven African American, and two Asian.

(This forum seems to favor several small, simple questions over one big, complex question. Hence the multiple threads with similar titles.)
(Ignoring the interchangeability of "who" and "that" for now....)

Would dropping "who/that are" cause major ungrammaticality, or add/delete subtle meaning to the sentence?

[5jj]

(This forum seems to favor several small, simple questions over one big, complex question. Hence the multiple threads with similar titles.)
(Ignoring the interchangeability of "who" and "that" for now....)

Would dropping "who/that are" cause major ungrammaticality, or add/delete subtle meaning to the sentence?

Yes.

In this room, there are five people White, seven African American, and two Asian.

That sentence is not totally unacceptable, but is very unnatural for most native speakers, in my opinion.