The way I’ve had it explained to me (by a white girl) is this
“You guys don’t look alike, you don’t have the same cultures, or the same religions, you don’t even talk alike”
and I was like “um, actually there’s a lot in common, especially when you consider the rise of Buddhism.”
and she was like “but whatever you don’t look alike”
And I was like “Well Filipinos look different from like…Chinese people”
to which she said, “oh, well, I don’t know, I guess they do, but they’re asian”
And then I was like “what other thing would you call them? They’re on the continent of Asia”
and she was like, “dude, Canadians are on the same continent as Americans and I wouldn’t call myself Canadian”
And I was thinking “noooo but they call themselves American and also that would be like me calling myself Indian”
so TLDR; short answer: because white ppl are fucked up in the head when it comes to race
