As long as we can agree that this color is white
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Strangely (and perhaps I am alone in this) but I find the use of word caucasian uncomfortable… I get that wanikani is an American website and the term is common there - but caucasian is not synonymous with white person in most of the world.
Also too often in Europe (at least) when it is used to refer to white people it has serious racist overtones.
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Hmm, I saw it used in NHK article just a couple days ago 
Only thing I found in the past would be this (#2) which appears to be pretty old and to be a different implication entirely.
Is it coming from how foreigners are perceiving it rather than how natives are using it? If so, that is an entirely different scenario.
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Yes, I have the exact same impression, but I’ve seen it used in games like Fallout as well. However, there I think Caucasian meant descent so that’s accurate.
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Thank Goodness Joji stopped and disowned this whole stupid character
This was my point earlier.
Japan is no different than any other country: it’s impolite to expressly highlight physical differences between people if it can be avoided. We seem to be particularly sensitive to this in the 21st century.
It can’t always be avoided, though. Political correctness notwithstanding, we’re all different and sometimes those differences must be described (it’s hard to discuss sickle-cell anemia or speak to a police sketch-artist without mentioning skin color or race, for example). Context.
The synonyms and obfuscations we use when we can’t avoid discussing these differences evolve over time. Today, words like “caucasian” and “oriental” are considered politically incorrect. I think the most acceptable terms these days are “white” and “Asian” (from what I can observe). But eliminating the word “oriental” from dictionaries or ESL classes would prevent people from reading Agatha Christie novels, for example.
It might be worth asking your teacher which synonyms and obfuscations Japanese people use when 白人 / 黒人 distinctions must be made. As discussed above, the word is still very much in common usage in Japan and is not derogatory.
It’s worth learning the readings. It would be conceivable but completely wrong to read it as しらびと, for example.
There are other common words with the はく reading that Wanikani could teach, but 白書・空白・白紙・明白 don’t seem any more common than the vocabulary words they do teach: 白人・紅白・白鳥・告白・蒼白.
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Maybe in other parts of the U.S. it is but where I’m from (the northern area of the midwest) it’s not very common. We usually just say “that person is white” if we need to talk about race.
What linchou said is more in line with what the connotation of Caucasian is here in the states. I think maybe only once have I ever heard Caucasian used with blatantly racist overtones. Then again, I live in the upper part of the midwest which is considerably less racist than the southern part of the midwest so my experience with this could be wildly different than the average experience. I also live in a pretty liberal/accepting area. Definitely interesting to learn that it’s generally different in Europe!
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No, the Japanese are more progressive than that. It’s Japan and everybody else.
Like, let’s say we’re in シアトル市 and talking about Led Zeppelin in Japanese, you know, as one does. 
Are they 外国人 because we’re American and they’re British? Because you can make a really good argument that 外国人 really means non-Japanese.
Aye, agreed.
Although, things like this have been a hot button topic lately especially when it comes to ハーフ and I’d bet that word is way more politically charged in Japan than 黒人 or 白人 since 宮本アリアナ made the news.
One of the quotes in this article by the interviewee, who is half Japanese, is:
「子どものころは白人っぽいというだけで、『お父さんはアメリカ人？』と言われ」
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Oh man. You really need to meet my daughter! 
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Yeah, I figured that might hit close to home for some people. 
It’s funny, a lot of the content I’ve been watching on YouTube are interviews and so I’ve seen a ton of perspectives on this. Two that come to mind are:
That last one is how I got into Miyachi’s music and Max himself is Japanese American so he has good perspective on it.
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Obviously it’s a long conversation and difficult topic.
My daughter mostly complains about the complete obliviousness some people have regarding what might be offensive.
Japan has a particularly difficult “us and them” problem because of the truly incomparable homogeneity — 明治維新 really wasn’t that long ago at all in cultural terms. Imagine what it must have been like to be ハーフ in the late 19th or early 20th century!
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There are two uses of Caucasian, the first (and English dictionary definition) is a simple descriptive word for a white European.
The second is shorthand for ‘Caucasian Race’. This is from the old European racial theories, and writing the names of the other ‘races’ in that would definitely be problematic today. If that’s the context you’re coming from then I can see why it would be uncomfortable.
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I don’t think anyone uses those apart from Americans
Also there’s a third (and arguably more correct) definition which is something like “originating from the caucuses”, which has nothing to do with race or phenotype
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I only know two Americans and I don’t think I’ve ever heard them use the word.
Although US media is definitely responsible for its modern resurgence, given it essentially died in the 1800s.
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I think it’s mainly because it’s a legal/bureaucratic term or something like that. Wasn’t trying to imply your average person uses it
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It feels a little more formal/antiquated, but not as much as calling Black people “Negroes” despite that only being about 50 or 60 years ago. I have only really seen sense 1, even in books written mentioning the origins of the term “Caucasian”
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Not at all.
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I still fairly frequently see it in forms I think, but only there. I actually just got this message from a friend today:
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