that's not the same as "Caucasian" used in the ordinary racial sense, as a synonym for 'white.

Outside the United States I don't think you'd find many people who'd see that as the "ordinary" term to use. It sounds about as weird as referring to anyone who is blackish as "Ethiopian".

Americans seem to go in for so much soul-searching about the use of language - and yet this bizarre genuflection in the direction of 19th century racist pseudo-science seems to pass unchallenged.