I'm Asian American, first generation through my Filipina mother, and have actually spent a lot of my adult life wondering this, and a majority of my academic career investigating the relationship dynamic between Euro-centric Western Culture vs. Asian Culture. A lot of the dynamic boils down to concepts which intertwine and emphasize the other and what can be in an almost toxic fashion: Post-Colonialism & Fetishization.
What's post-colonialism? Long story short, it's a school of thought that focuses on the Dominant & Submissive relationship between colonizing forces (I.E., The U.S., British Empire, Portugal, Spain, all dem Europeans) and those colonized (I.E. The Philippines for example! I've studied so much of that). It's hundreds and hundreds of years in the making, and engrains particular mindsets of 'what is right' into society. An important concept I've grown up with and studied has been shadism, which is a similiar manifestation to racism, but exhibits itself in terms of skin tone (kayumangi/dark vs maputi/pale). Pale skin tone is equated to higher class, better lineage, and physical beauty while dark skin is equated to indigenous background, lower class, lower education, etc (So in the Philippines, being pale meant you were of Spanish descent, thus rich and educated, while being dark symbolized being indigenous and poor). Shadism has practices such as daily skin bleaching, whitening make-up, contact lenses to make your eyes look larger, and cosmetic surgeries to create a fold in the eyelid like westerners have. My family does all of this and it ain't no thang. The first time I ever got make up, my mother gave me a compact of white powder, and told me that I was already lucky to be beautiful as a half American, and white powder would only highlight that. In Post-Colonial cultures, the submissive/colonized people are taught to idolize and aspire to be like the dominant people. I was actually encouraged to date white boys when I was younger, not realizing all the implications. All the women in my family are. Dating somebody with an ethnic background isn't frowned upon, but it isn't praised in the same way that a dating somebody white is.
On the other end, there's festishization. Which is the ebb to the flow of post-colonalism. The concept of a fetish is pretty understandable to most considering the familiarity of pornography, and is centric on sexualizing stereotypes on a certain people that may not always be true. In simplest terms, there's a lot to Asian stereotypes but if we boil it down to plain rhetoric, there's the Virgin Vs. Whore dichotomy. On one end of the stereotype, pornography creates an image of Asian women as submissive and sexual creatures. On the other end, Asian women are cast as victims constantly crying for their white savior. Also, because of the power structures behind shadism, if you're a dark/Asian woman and you have children with a white man, giving them a lighter skin tone is a way for them to elevate class, which in itself is considered a gift to those children. Here's a good video that goes a little more into what it is like for Asian women to struggle with these stereotypes and the pressure to pursue relationships with white men:
Last summer,
I met a boy who spoke like rain against windows. -
He had his father's blue eyes.
He'd press his wrist against mine and say he was too pale.
That my skin was so much more beautiful.
To him, I was Pacific sunset,
almond milk, a porcelain cup.
When he left me, I told myself I should have seen it coming.
I wasn't sure I was sad but I cried anyway.
Girls who look like me
are supposed to cry over boys who look like him.
I'd seen all the movies and read all the books.
We were just following the plot.
Speaking from personal experience, my whole existence tethers on this dynamic. My mother comes from a culture that idolizes the white man, so falling in love with a white man was a lofty dream that was easy to do. On the other end, my dad constantly tells me that had it not been for Karate Kid, I would not exist! He said he never really was attracted to Asian women until watching it, and then he met my mother. These two notions are problematic, but that doesn't mean they're all bad. Also, just because an Asian and a white person are dating, doesn't mean that all this messy business goes into that context. This is just a historical/academic perspective but doesn't reign 100% for everyone. A lot of people don't take into account ethnicity or race or political history when dating someone. Sometimes, you just fall in love with who you fall in love with and it doesn't matter what their skin color is. Sometimes, you watch Karate Kid and make three daughters with an Asian woman.
As far as dating white people goes, I've primarily dated white boys in my past because where I live, most people are of Polish/German descent, so that's what's about. A colored lady is more likely to date a white boy when there are more white boys around. That's my personal stance. Honestly, lately I've been more vibing into dating people with more ethnic & academic backgrounds because I actually really like studying what I study and those two things come together into person I can have really intense and awesome conversations with, so it's less about their skin color and more about our shared/similiar experiences.
Sorry. Kind of rambly. Maybe got some holes. Ask any questions cuz this is totally mah thaaaang.