As Toni Morrison once stated about racism:

The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.”

And asking this loaded question serves the same purpose of wasting time while you stand in place, explaining over and over what you cannot explain, because you’re not an authority, and they don’t care about your answer.