I'm sure I've used this header before, and probably in connection with the spectre of racism that sometimes raises its head in this country.

It's happening again, folks – check out the comments on any story that involves immigrants and you'll see it, in stark, revolting, living colour.

And if you think that these comments are bad, can you imagine the ones that the moderator doesn't let through? Would you imagine it's beyond the bounds of possibility, in a country that laughs fondly at a racist who proposes driving immigrants back off the beaches, for someone to comment that a baby born at sea, during a rescue, should have been left to drown, if not worse?

Well, imagine again, my friend, because I'm told that this is the sort of thing that has to be stopped from seeing the light of day in this Malta Cattolicissima.

Not everything that happens to an immigrant, or to someone with a black or non-white skin, is racist, of course, and it is not impossible for someone who has these characteristics to play to the gallery and squeal "racist, racist" when anyone tries to – say – discipline them or impose some sort of sanction.

That said, we should be ashamed to call ourselves civilised if we continually demonstrate racist attitudes. I write "we" because I have no doubt that for all my liberal and anti-racist positions, I can be just as guilty as the next man, consciously or not.

Let's be clear: any politician, any officer of the state, any one of us, is guilty of racism if he or she does not, at every opportunity, condemn racism. It may be that immigrants do not vote, that they do not pay taxes, that they do not carry a Maltese passport, but they have one necessary qualification to be treated decently: they are human beings.

Really, is there anything more that needs to be said?