IME people who say they don't see race may be lovely and well meaning, but it's usually because they've never had to consider it in their own lives.
Yes I think this is true - hence my plaster/ foundation analogy.
I don't actively ascribe stereotypes or values based on what someone looks like is what I mean by it. But I still acknowledge that everyone has a level of unconscious bias (whether we're talking about race or beauty or body shape) and think it's healthy to realise it exists and challenge it - within myself and others.
Another example would be in the work environment. Our senior management meetings, without fail, end up with a woman taking notes - despite that woman being in every other respect entirely equal to her male counterparts sitting around that table (there is no admin support). We've only recently just started calling it out and actively volunteering the men to do it. They had no idea they were doing this, or that it was inherently sexist. It was their male privilege - they've never had to deal with others thinking that in order to carry out secretarial duties you must have a vagina.