>>106228085
Originally America was a place to escape pesky national divides and just be "americans". They then realized that this utopian pipe dream was thought up when the only real people to consider were English, Germans, Danes, and others who were "different" but generally close enough it was a non issue.
They then learned the existence of the "others".
Then it was largely "white" or "black".
Hispanic wasn't a thing that they bothered counting for a while because there just wasn't enough to bother with and they kind of blended in so whatever. Asians were obvious enough to not be bothered with blending in.
It was as inclusive a place as could be all things considered.
Then mexicans started becoming a sizeable population and they finally realized "hey, wait a second, what the fuck". But inertia had previously counted them as white so they made a new hispanic white category.
Look at the FBI's most wanted list. All very dark brown, all listed as "white male". They make up the predominant amount of "white male" crimes (though, of course, not all).
tl:dr; it's due to the history of the country being a schizo mix of first "it shouldn't matter what you are" + then "well it actually does matter what you are".
