Explanation: It's a common racist trope for ethnicities to accuse others of all 'looking the same'. This one uses the racist trope of white people accusing East Asians of all 'looking the same', and sets up the joke to demonstrate how similar white people can look if you use dumb criteria (as racists do when accusing others of looking the same).
However, instead, IT IS I, DIO EMPEROR AUGUSTUS, who holds offices which should all be held by separate individuals, according to the traditions of republican governance... but he collected titles like a hoarder collects junk.
I guess all these Roman office-holders DO look the same in the end... hmm...
Fun fact, white people actually do look the same to rural brown and black people who haven't seen us much. It's all down to experience telling similar looking people apart.
The racist part would be if you insist it's objective reality as opposed to a skill issue, with an undertone of "and therefore they aren't fully individuals".
No lie! There's nothing racist about seeing members of a given race as all looking the same. It all comes down to experience. Fox example, after being around my wife and her friends I can call out a Filipino vs. other Asians, almost flawlessly (in person is much easier of course). Couldn't do that before.
We were having a garage sale and my wife asked a visitor if she was Filipino. I'm thinking, "Of course she is! It's not obvious to you?!"
After Hurricane Ivan we roommates were playing cards on the porch by candlelight with a new guy from around the corner. Me and another white guy, who looked totally different except for being about the same build, a Taiwanese kid and the new guy, black.
Black guy kept getting us white guy's names mixed up. The other guy politely corrected him, again. The man started apologizing profusely and I cut him off:
"It's all good. I know we all look alike to y'all black people."
The three seconds of silence while we all looked at each other for permission to laugh, my god I was popping a sweat. And then we all started roaring. Whew