Thank you for your comment. The fact that the remark "can easily be distorted . . ." shows, IMHO, that the racist element was unconcsious. She did not realise that the assumptions underlyiing her questioning were racist. Ask yourself, would she had been so insistent if the person to whom she was talking was from the same background as herself? The fact that she has apologised also demonstrates that she now recognises the inappropriateness of her behaviour. Racism, again IMHO, is not limit to active hatred but includes any suggestion that one person is superior to another because of the circumstances of their birth. So far as I am concerned we are all one race and all deserving of respect based on our humanity, not some artificial social construct based on physical attributes.