Reading up, your comment above about "And it's not that I think everyone should have magical OH IT'S A PERSON OF COLOR radar, but the way that the default assumption of white in the absence of any outward markers makes people invisible makes me really angry." makes perfect sense - I have to confess that's what my default assumption is, not because I'm trying to be all whitewashy, but because I just don't notice. Not something to be really proud of; the only thing I really have in my defense is that racial issues and awareness are framed very differently in Australia, and there are different problems at the forefront (on a specific level; the broader problems of racism and prejudice are largely universal, of course).

I suppose the key thing to remember is that "caucasian" != "white", and that issues of color are as much about privilege and prejudice as about the scientific definitions of 'this person counts as caucasian'? I think?

Argh. It is hard, yo. (Oh my poor privileged self, boo hoo.) I thought for years that being color-blind was _good_. It's only in the last couple of years, with all the fandom kerfuffles, that I've really seen the point about why it's not. (And thankyou to the intelligent eloquent people of fandom, who've explained it so clearly.) At least I'm learning, I guess.