Does everyone get the imperial race unlocked this weekend, or is it random?

everyone gets it

We all do, enjoy.

To my knowledge the imperial race unlock won't be available until early access/launch. That's pretty standard for betas.

Edit: and the pretty standard remark seems to be wrong in this case. My apologies

But it is available now.

Additional Digital Content

This weekend, you will have access to the items contained in the Imperial Edition and the Explorer’s Pack, plus you’ll be joined by a pet monkey while on your journey!

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/57790/beta-session-0-18-patch-notes#latest

cool

I wonder if us closed beta people will be able to keep the imperial character we create after release.

read your ingame mail from the dev's you be suprised. o happy times here i come

They are wiping the characters for launch. Would be a bit unfair otherwise.

Nothing from the beta will carry over to release.

I'm going out on a limb to say that you closed beta people will be starting over with everyone else. Not sure why you would think otherwise.

some games allow stuff from the beta to carry over I thought ah well

Well not this one lol, you'll have to be content with 5 days early access if you preordered