Because the term "[free] people of colour" is a direct translation of the French phrase "gens de couleur [libres]" used in the French West Indies during slavery

Because the term "[free] people of colour" is a direct translation of the French phrase "gens de couleur [libres]" used in the French West Indies during slavery times to refer to free people of mixed African and European ancestry. Of course its now its just virtue signalling to describe some imagined unified faction of the rest of the planet opposing white people. IMHO, it will end once American-born Chinese and Indian mothers realise they aren't part of it and that their kids bear the largest brunt of the interventions.