Movies, films, and cartoons have been innacurately depicting Tibetans for decades. They haven’t cared, because they’ve had too many actual problems to deal with.

SPOILER: It’s because xenophobia is still common across the Asian contenent, and most of it is directed at other asian ethnicities. A white woman is least likely to offend. Ironic, isn’t it?

So, if The Ancient One was Asian, it’d be racist, and if they weren’t, it’d be whitewashing for sake of making a profit.