According to a Star report,
'Oldtown White Coffee has said that an allegedly racist recruitment advertisement by a franchisee was not approved by higher management.
Kopitiam Asia Pacific F&B division’s executive director and chief operating officer Clarence Leon D’Silva said the advertisement was unacceptable and offensive and apologised on the behalf of the franchise that published the ad...'
In Malaysia, we have been conditioned with advertisements such as 'Preference for Bumiputeras/Malays' or 'Only Bumiputeras/Malays need apply' and nobody would complain.
The Oldtown advertisement states 'priority will be given to Malays and Chinese' which implies that other races such as Indians and so on are being discriminated against, which is unacceptable. But in Rakyat Times, it was mischievously reported as ''No Indians, please, we are Old Town White Coffee' which changed what could be an innocent mistake to a positive insult to Indians.
But later, it was discovered that the franchisee is a company owned by Indians! So the so-called racial discrimination becomes not as insulting as originally thought.
Someone suggested that we should have a Race Discrimination Act to put a stop to racially discriminating advertisements such as the above, but are we sure we can enforce it across the board?
In the UK, for instance, they are serious in enforcement even though people perceived discrimination exists covertly. For instance, there was a case of a coloured student who answered an advertisement for room to let, only to be told that it had been taken. So he asked a white friend to ask again and it was still available!
When Sex Discrimination Act was first introduced, some advertisements were deliberately posted with a sense of humour. For eg., 'Bricklayers required: must be able to work topless in summer.'
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'Oldtown White Coffee has said that an allegedly racist recruitment advertisement by a franchisee was not approved by higher management.
Kopitiam Asia Pacific F&B division’s executive director and chief operating officer Clarence Leon D’Silva said the advertisement was unacceptable and offensive and apologised on the behalf of the franchise that published the ad...'
In Malaysia, we have been conditioned with advertisements such as 'Preference for Bumiputeras/Malays' or 'Only Bumiputeras/Malays need apply' and nobody would complain.
The Oldtown advertisement states 'priority will be given to Malays and Chinese' which implies that other races such as Indians and so on are being discriminated against, which is unacceptable. But in Rakyat Times, it was mischievously reported as ''No Indians, please, we are Old Town White Coffee' which changed what could be an innocent mistake to a positive insult to Indians.
But later, it was discovered that the franchisee is a company owned by Indians! So the so-called racial discrimination becomes not as insulting as originally thought.
Someone suggested that we should have a Race Discrimination Act to put a stop to racially discriminating advertisements such as the above, but are we sure we can enforce it across the board?
In the UK, for instance, they are serious in enforcement even though people perceived discrimination exists covertly. For instance, there was a case of a coloured student who answered an advertisement for room to let, only to be told that it had been taken. So he asked a white friend to ask again and it was still available!
When Sex Discrimination Act was first introduced, some advertisements were deliberately posted with a sense of humour. For eg., 'Bricklayers required: must be able to work topless in summer.'
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