Highlight the white words and they're easy to read (with most browsers). We do it for several reasons. It might be because we are hiding the words from all but a select group or it might be because we feel the content is something that some among us would not like staring them in the face. Sometimes it is because it is something that is not the main thrust of what we are trying to say and we don't want it to distract from the main message. In this last, it is something of a step beyond parenthetical. The star *before a word indicates emphasis but less emphasis than stars *around* a word. The latter isn't used much on this board; we usually bold or italicize. Italicizing is more normally used when we wish a word to be considered as the word itself and not to indicate the meaning behind the word.
Got that?
If so, I'll try to explain it again
