When you read a book and a character is first introduced, do you automatically imagine the person is white? Most of the time, a character’s skin color is only described if the character is not white.
This plays out in real life, too. If a person in a news article or a crime report or an announcement of an award winner is white, race is rarely mentioned. If the person is of color, his/her race is used as a descriptor.
Again, white is the default, the normal. If someone is different, it’s noted.
Here is an article by Neil Gaimon, a widely popular author, talking about how he defines the characters in his writings.
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