It's quite hard actually. Eg, The Malays here and the Malays in Malaysia speak with the same accent. Then you have the whole regional accent mess.

Do Americans or most westerners know the difference or can spot who is Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian?

nearly all can't.
same as almost no asians can see the differences in western people.

some study i don't remember right away. mentioned that people can only see the differences in their own race. and whit all the other races allot of people look the same.

"race" (putting those brackets there for a show, cause even the term itself is used wrong, "suspecies" might be more accurate, but again there'd probably be a flaw in that)

Race in the sense of ethnies is an ok word (though why don't people just say ethnies then?), subspecies would be plain wrong, not accurate.

some study i don't remember right away. mentioned that people can only see the differences in their own race. and whit all the other races allot of people look the same.

It's not like we don't have the capacity. We're just used to the differences we see between the faces we see everyday, and cannot tell the differences between faces we don't. Farmers can recognize all cows in a small to medium herd they keep (more traditional farmers, not the mass ones of course). As far as I know, humans and cows aren't even the same species.

(though why don't people just say ethnies then?),

Well, 'ethnies' isn't a word, so that's probably a good reason :P You mean ethnicity I think. It just depends on who you're speaking to, I hear that term more often than race.

some study i don't remember right away. mentioned that people can only see the differences in their own race. and whit all the other races allot of people look the same.

Adding to what HahiHa said, it's how familiar you are with anything. My dad can recognize planes when they can barely be seen, or cars. To me, they all look the same. The same goes for everything, language, people, animals, terms, pictures, etc. You learn to spot the differences with what you're around.

Racist also seems to be a word people hide behind to feel invulnerable.

example: I'm in sandwich bar with a friend of mine and there's a handicaped girl next to us, we talk a littel with her and her father before they leave to catch their train. As they leave a group of muslim girls (early twenties atleast none younger then 20) enter and start to point at the girl and laugh and say all sorts of nasty things.
I got up and told them they should be ashamed of themselves laughing with a handicaped person like that and instantly they start calling me a racist.

Like what the hell, i don't know any culture or religion that approves making fun of handicaped people but making a remark about that makes me a racist.

I will give you my two cents. I think that racism is still very alive from where I am in this part of California. It is sad but thats how its gonna be and it aint going to change.

I will give you my two cents. I think that racism is still very alive from where I am in this part of California. It is sad but thats how its gonna be and it aint going to change.

any examples? I don't know about you, but california doesn't seem like the place that's very racist friendly.

example: I'm in sandwich bar with a friend of mine and there's a handicaped girl next to us, we talk a littel with her and her father before they leave to catch their train. As they leave a group of muslim girls (early twenties atleast none younger then 20) enter and start to point at the girl and laugh and say all sorts of nasty things.
I got up and told them they should be ashamed of themselves laughing with a handicaped person like that and instantly they start calling me a racist.

then call them *****s and be done with them. people get defensive when they are reprimanded, there is no point trying to drive a point home when they have walls to block you set up.

-Blade