I hadn't been able to articulate this point fully until now but it was definitely what I was doing unconsciously when I started writing Encounters in Paris, at least from the standpoint that there are universal conflicts and themes that human beings face regardless of race or gender.  

What Nobel Prize winning author, Toni Morrison, says in this interview, is exactly where I have been trying to go with my own writing.  Hopefully, I can perfect it one day and be half as good at this as she is!

"'...Gender and race are two factors that authors can use to affect the reader’s projections,' Morrison noted. She said that she would like to see a novel written from the point of view of a narrator whose gender was not distinguishable, because it would remove the assumptions that typically accompany a reader’s conception of the sexes. The same thing, she said, applied to race.

She mused upon the effect of removing race and gender from a story extensively. 'We feel or think we know so much about both. The assumptions are already there, so your imagination is already constrained, but suppose they’re removed.' The result, she said, is greater control over the story by the author and the reader’s use of 'invisible ink.'"

Read the full article:
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2011/03/02/27811/