Thank you for taking the time to respond. You are correct that “white” alone is probably closer to 60%. However the census does count “Hispanic or Latino”, so they are not being lumped in with the white population. Beyond that I don’t know what is lumped together. The census also says that “two races present” represents 2.8% of the population, which seems weirdly low but again I am not an expert.

I believe that I stated that it would be nice if people did not leap to the “default” but humans are flawed. In Los Angeles if someone talks about their gardener the first thought is that the gardener is Hispanic. Sad but true, we look at examples around is to fill in the unknown.

As to the hair. We will have to disagree. Anyone who verbalizes the thought that they are uncomfortable talking to you because they cannot touch your hair is weird. Who thinks that? It’s rude to touch without asking, it’s generally weird to ask to touch and if you cannot talk to someone without touching their hair you have taken weirdness (or craziness) to a new level.

I had a black co-worker long ago who every day would touch my cheek and hair and tell me I was “so so so white”. She was weird too, but not a racist. Just a little nuts but very nice otherwise.