Charles Mogale's "Your colour doesn't matter because we're all Africans" (May 7) refers.

I was reminded of the old South Africa in which humour was indiscriminately used to stigmatise, demonise and dehumanise human beings.

In Mogale's piece it is the so-called coloured (his words).

According to him we are no more than caricatures in two tickle-me-I-am-so-funny tales.

Recognise the stereotype? (You forgot the missing front teeth, Mr Mogale!)

Remember Blackman Ngoro? At least he had an excuse: in a province where the African of diverse descent - the coloured, for clarity - is so in your face that stereotyping seems the only way one can "handle" them.

Mogale perpetuates the stereotypical coloured, lumping us all together (jolly, drunk hotnots all of us - just like the previous governments did).

Why? To make it easier for you to handle?

Yes, many of us need not be educated by or ask Mogale's permission to call ourselves African, despite the jaws of our "other" brothers and sisters dropping when we refer to ourselves as African.

It sure does become tiresome arguing that "African" is not equal to amaZulu, Basotho or amaXhosa.

And did you notice, Mogale, how your piece exposes you as a "new white", one who talks about "my coloureds", the same way the old whites talked about "my meid" or "my jong"?

Judy May, Johannesburg