>>509812028 (OP)why are the nuances of language so hard for you people to grasp?
its an issue of semantics and colloquialisms
"asian" doesn't actually mean "people from asia" to Americans it means people specifically from East Asia. Chinse, Japanese, and Koreans were more common immigrants from Asia so it was easier to lump them in that single term of "Asia". South East Asians have also gotten lumped into this categorization because they share similar features to East Asians and were also becoming common immigrants even they get browner
I'm sure we would also call Siberians "Asian" to if we got them
The reason why "South Asians" don't get called "Asian" is because they don't share similar features. And its not like we ever had a lot of them coming to America either
Similarly we don't call Middle Easterners Asian either even if they are technically "Asia"