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As a father of a girl who has been subjected to racist taunting even in pre-school for having darker skin, I find the official response from Raffles Institution (RI) to the brownface image displayed by one of their students to be disappointingly lukewarm. ( July 25). Rather than straight-out disapproving of such behaviour as antisocial and stating the appropriate punishment meted out to the offending students, the principal stated that the students were disciplined and reminded to be sensitive to the feelings of others. Thus, I am unsure that RI and its students appreciated the gravity of the matter.   What has once been seen as “harmless fun” by especially the ethnic majority in performatively painting their faces in comically parodying usually ethnic minorities is increasingly regarded in Singapore as offensively racist stereotyping. In 2017, Mediacorp was fined for such an act in one of its television programmes, and in 2019, it also withdrew and apologised for a similar portrayal in a public advertisement. A year later, a resurfaced photograph of students from Raffles Junior College (RJC) in blackface together with their Indian classmate also drew substantial public flak.  Given the series of events, I wonder if students and schools are aware of the offensiveness of this practice. Therefore, I remain unconvinced by the claims of RI that the offending student, who had carefully prepared this pose with a food deliveryman’s shirt and mask supposedly of a basketballer, specifically on Racial Harmony Day, meant no ill intent.  According to the Ministry for Education, for this year’s Racial Harmony Day, Minister Chan Chun Sing, Second Minister Maliki Osman, Minister of State Gan Siow Huang, and Senior Parliamentary Secretary Shawn Huang actively joined school activities to mark the occasion. I am heartened by the commitment and emphasis given to racial harmony, and it would be a pity if this year’s Racial Harmony Day gets remembered only for one negative incident.  As such, I hope that the Ministry of Education can provide greater clarity to schools and the public on its stance on zero-tolerance for racist microaggression like blackface, which is no laughing matter.