My bad. I kind of skimmed through the OP's first post, and I answered based on the accent piece he mentioned.
One time, at work, an Indian contractor came and I was stunned to see his features - He had grey eyes!! With his tanned skin, he looked absolutely stunning, so I can kind of see the OP's fascination with some people's unique physical features. I can imagine myself asking this contractor guy (if I wasn't in a work setting), "you look so exotic, where are you from?"
I understand that you're white, and you emphasize with some of your non-white friends who were mistreated and we all should. At the same time, there are plenty of us folks who enjoy and embrace diversity. I am/look Asian and everyone notices I am, and like I said, strangers have come up to me (without me speaking; hence they don't know I have an accent) and have asked me if I'm Chinese or Korean, or Japanese. (Always a white man asking. Never a woman.) They are just curious. For whatever reason. And I consider that OK. And undoubtedly, some Asian people probably do not enjoy being asked. One Indian friend of mine was born in Canada, but just because of the way she looks, a guy at the party we were at started talking to her about how much he enjoyed his trip to India. Things like that happen all the time IMO. I don't worry about it.
But I understand your point and everyone else's point. It's better to be on the safe side.