another response:
Dear Amy: "J" wrote to you that she loves to ask strangers about their race.Should we feel free to indulge our curiosity by approaching strangers and asking their gender? What about their sexual orientation? Age? Marital status? Religion?Why not if they're pregnant or HIV positive?One way to test whether satisfying one's curiosity is rude is to consider what would happen if the tables were turned. Imagine a white person's indignant response if a nonwhite stranger asked his or her race.Your advice to the always-curious J should have been, "Mind your own business."And the polite response when strangers ask about your race? "Human."— Barbara