I am fairly certain that is because they are often referring to other races in their own countries. If you live in the US, most of your news is about North America and Europe, both continents that are predominantly filled with white people.
I would bet a large percentage of Americans couldn't identify their home state on a map of the world.
In Europe, say, Africans play a lot of football. But there's also just as many whites who do- so are African Americans only endowed with the kind of genetics that help them play good basketball? Or are Africans in general endowed with good _basketball_ genetics, but not good _football_ genetics?
And what about European basketball? Why are basketball teams in Europe not predominantly African American?
[Where "football" read "soccer" if you're on the other side of the pond, please]
Do you think white peoples under representation in US pro sports is more due to genetics or environmental influence?
Having worked in Sillycon Valley for a long time I think it's funny/sad how the whole scene pretends to be PC about race and diversity issues when pretty much all the tech employees there are white or Indian males.
What's even funnier is that white people are only a small percentage of world population but have the audacity to refer to all other races as 'minorities'.
I don't know any good solution to systemic race/diversity issues other than making mushrooms legal and mandatory.