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Q: why do schools looking for English teachers in China have to specify the skin colour?
its been so hectic getting a job since iam black.However,this doesn't mean that my command in English is poor.Since kindergarten,the language of communication or rather examination has been the queen's language having been colonized by Britons. So why overlook me just because iam black? For crying out loud, the Chinese people have contracts in my government to construct roads and they are not looked down upon....So why is the reverse here???
11 years 47 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
One from this site...that was removed some days after it was posted. 
MissA:
WTF? They seriously imagine that no black people can be native speakers? What hole did the author of this job advertisement crawl out from under?
Another main reason is the amount of money they can charge..
under the skin we are all the same.I went for an interview with a lady who was older in her 40's,she too is black....because of her age,no school wanted her.I felt sorry for her because i knew she needed the money more than i did. I don't have a family, so what i get is for me since i have no dependants! @Pogger34,i agree with you, but if one is looking for a job seriously especially in education, i bet they'd have to be good as they claim.
you do understand you are here benefiting from discrimination as well? if a chinese national went to usa or uk and spoke english fluently they would still get the chinese lower wage as opposed to the foreigner salary.
i can not understand why people come here , take advantage of discrimination and then cry when they see an ad that discriminates against them. cowboy up, this is china. it is backwards and retarded. it is better they put it in the ad as opposed to wasting 4 days of your time.
crimochina:
you don't know that we are talking about english teaching jobs here in china???????? you can't think for yourself???
crimochina:
"lower chinese wage as opposed to the foreigner salary " do you know where this applies booger?
Could have a history with hiring black people not sure. Many reasons could be given but you should ask the company. Not saying anything about black people but discrimination could be one reason or just they could of had a history where they hired a couple of black people and they didn't exceed their expectations...most employers don't want to settle with it's ok they want it's terrific! Keep that in mind!
..."if one is looking for a job seriously especially in education, i bet they'd have to be good as they claim"; sadly Mercy, this is not the case. The Chinese preference for the 'perfect looking' teacher (please note the heavy dose of sarcasm here) means there are plenty of people working with minimal qualifications or experience.
Good luck with your search.
mercyshiroh:
Thank you Missa, iam hoping for the best because i know am good at what i venture to do.
I met American guys, black on, but school refused him. why??? no reason, just because he is black. here in china school don't need teach, they just do it for business. because of Chinese parents. Chinese parents would like have a white teacher for his kid than black. don't care where are u coming from. some schools need teachers with a bachelor degree at least, but here in china, most teachers don't have so, how can u understand that?
And a friend of mine, from America, one school refuse him because he is too fate, what relations with his abilities to teach and his over weight?
Or one school which need a teacher tall one, brow air fitness bleu eyes. are u sure those are requirements for a serious school? or job bitches who is looking for white guys for date.
Any way, good luck for you guys hope still have some school can accept blacks as teacher.
Are they racist or simply uneducated? I am non-native English speaker, I am not white nor black. At first, I have to compete in the skin color pageantry here in China to get a decent teaching job. It is definitely a spirit downer and, as others believe, life will always be unfair for the underdogs. However, I came to realize that there are just some little things I have to understand and change to be able to succeed and stop whining. I worked hard and showed to my students, parents and Chinese co-teachers that I can also have the respect everybody needs. They have learned that not all white can speak English. Gradually, I was accepted and given all the things a "white" worker (sorry, for the word) can have, and today I get a lot of kudos from my Chinese bosses. Maybe, I am also just lucky to have nice Chinese people around me. I am just a little scared to be institutionalized though.
Shining_brow:
Yeah, definitely racist! The proof of that pudding is that you can have the right passport, nationality, upbringing, etc.... and they'll still look at your appearance.
Of course, this seriously is only in some organisations and areas... and not so in others!
Can anyone confirm or deny that in the public sector (particularly in universities) this tendency is less common???I have known a few non-stereotyped native speakers who have worked for some of the private schools though - although, they tend to be the 'bigger' schools (eg, EF)
I don't think it's the schools that are racist, I think it's a large percentage of the population.
I have posted adverts on here for a school and I have specified that the teacher must be white. Am I proud to say this? Absolutely not. I have, in the past, had to turn down applications from native English speakers because they are black and it is frustrating for me too. I would like to hire them, I really would. I won't though.
Why not? The reason is simple. The parents have explicitly told us that they only want white teachers. Does it suck? Of course, but this is China and you have to play the game by their rules if you want to make money. Things are slowly changing, maybe in 5 - 10 years skin colour will matter less but don't expect any sudden change in attitude.
The world's a big place, take your teaching skills somewhere they will be appreciated rather than banging your head against the Great Wall!
Shining_brow:
There's an old saying - "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."
:
I believe as Shining says that you are the part of the problem. Not to mention that you feel guilty and you are trying to only hide it through this sort of explanations. If you feel guilty it's OK, because it means you know you are wrong but hey! don't blame the parents, blame yourself. You simply like it the way you do it and you also like to use others for the blame.
andyinshenyang:
Guilty? Nah, just frustrated. Hell, if I were feeling guilty about it, I wouldn't have posted it in the first place!
"You simply like it the way you do it and you also like to use others for the blame."
Nope! If I could hire black teachers from one of the major native English speaking countries, it would make my life a hell of a lot easier.
Racists and highly discriminating society.
This is indeed a society of fear: fear of the food, fear of strangers; xenophobia; fear of going out after dark; fear of criticism; fear of parents; fear of failure; fear of rain; fear of losing face to boss; fear of the government; fear of not making money; fear of spending money; fear of doing things properly; fear of being open, honest and direct...and more...fear rules this society.
Because chinese are racist, It is a crap society without values and ethics. I hope chinese don,t become a superpower, we have to stop them.
While you don't see this as much in the job market in other countries (like America for example) because it's illegal to openly do so. The same is true in other countries to. It's a simple fact that in America many people view black people overall as having poor English skills or being uneducated. Right or wrong, that's the image a majority of people have.
Same applies to China. People simply have an imagine that white people speak better English. Many schools only have 15-30 minutes to impress a potential student/parent and get their money, so IMAGE is very crucial.
Is it right or fair? No it isn't. But there's nothing that can be done about it and you have to just learn to accept it.
It's also not fair that a black person will get paid more and get a teaching job easier than a Chinese person. There's advantages and disavantages to being a certain skin color/race in China, you just have to take the good with the bad.
so give up teaching , being a good rapper，black people are always good at it , like 50cent, Dre, DMX, lil wyne ERIC SERMON ……i'll wait for your fist album
Because sometimes the little kids are afraid of you guys since they never saw foreigners
ElenaDob:
That's your job to teach your kids that Chinese nations is not the only nation in the world & that people look different.
Actually, because this is China and because they can until the law and things change around here. You know in that case I guess you could say they do have a bit of freedom. They can actually specify what color they want and they can reject people for hire.
People get fired everyday where I'm from because they get pregnant or some minor things such as that so here and there they do have their differences, but there are also many similarities. 
China needs time, it's been isolated for years. There's another thing - superiority complex.
It's really hard to cope with it.
Sarcasm Alert::
Um, because only white guys can teach English. Hispanic guys like me dont know squat... Every body knows that!!!!!!!!!
