I'll be upfront. I don't watch TV and of course did not see that racist advertisement of a Chinese mother fainting when she saw her son with a black American girlfriend.

However, I condemn any racially insensitive advertisement touching on race and skin colour irrespective of whether or not the race concerned is one of the major races in Malaysia.

In any case, the message being sent out, especially to young viewers, is that dark skinned people are somehow undesirable and unlike readers Razak and William , I don't see anything funny or humourous about this.

The reaction of that mother in the advertisement could well have been the reaction of a racist, bigoted white American mother to her son bringing home a black American girlfriend. If such an advertisement was aired in the United States, it would have been condemned and rightly so.

On the other hand, what would Malaysians say if the advertisement showed the mother fainting at seeing her son bringing home an Indian girlfriend from a local collage or university? I'm sure most would condemn it as racially insensitive too.

Razak and William asked whether we are unable to confront the truth about ourselves and I ask what truth are they referring to in this particular advertisement.

The truth, as far as I am aware, is that some members of each ethnic community in Malaysia have unstated prejudices against fellow Malaysians and other Asians for various reasons.

Well, that is bigotry and racism just like the kind of bigotry and racism one finds between some whites and blacks, whites and Asians, Asians and blacks in Western countries.

I look Malay and I've felt silent racist vibes when I go into some Chinese shops or coffee shops. On the other hand I have lots of Chinese friends as well. One of them who had a Malay girlfriend about 30 years ago told me how he experienced an unfavourable reaction from a fellow Chinese lorry driver who gave them a lift, while his girlfriend experienced a similar unfavourable reaction from the Malay lorry attendant for having a Chinese boyfriend.

The question is what message the advertisement is sending out. Is it exposing and ridiculing the mother's bigoted attitude, or is it encouraging bigotry in viewers?