My coworker is paid less because she's black

[Broomstick]

Yeah, that’s what I got, but the culture I was raised in would say that unequal pay for the same job is no kind of justice.

[bengangmo]

@even_sven

A few reasons.

One is that Chinese Americans aren’t really seen as Americans. There is no real concept that a foreigner could move to China and “become” Chinese, so likewise there no concept that a Chinese person could go to America and become American. Chinese Americans are considered “overseas Chinese.” So people wanting a “foreign teacher” are going to consider the Chinese American as being in a odd category that doesn’t readily for what they want.

Second is numbers. There are a LOT of foreign English teachers. My tiny town hosted as many as five, and there are a hell of a lot of small towns in China. There just aren’t that many interested Chinese Americans, especially considering that outside of the best schools, the pay isn’t great and there is zero job security. It really is a fast-food model in most cases- bad pay and poor conditions, but jobs are everywhere. They aren’t really going for targeted recruiting.

Finally, speaking Chinese isn’t a huge advantage. Cheap, well-educated local teachers (who are familiar with the all-important testing system) typically handle grammar and anything that requires explanation. Precious foreign teachers primarily teach conversational classes designed to build verbal fluency. The best practice for this kind of class is total immersion- not to speak Chinese at all.

And behind this is a philosophy that foreign teachers are there basically as a bit of a sideshow. Students are warned before classes that foreign teachers are a wacky lot, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Foreign teachers are subtlety advised to keep it fun and lighthearted, and not to make anything too meaty or transformative. Foreign teachers are still seen as slightly dangerous, and thus confined to a pretty limited role.

Based on my experience in Singapore this is a fairly accurate representation.

Here, second or third generation ABC (American born Chinese) would still be referred to as “Bananas” (Yellow on the outside, white inside) and it is fully expected that anyone with a “Yellow Skin” can speak Chinese - without any hint of irony at all.

And yes, it is all relative - I have found Chinese in general to be highly racist, and the mere fact of hiring someone from Ghana would be seen as progressive -

Particularly as, at “first blush” Ghana is not going to thought of as “native English Speakers” (which at the very least is going to require a white face)

[TokyoBayer]

@bengangmo

Based on my experience in Singapore this is a fairly accurate representation.

Here, second or third generation ABC (American born Chinese) would still be referred to as “Bananas” (Yellow on the outside, white inside) and it is fully expected that anyone with a “Yellow Skin” can speak Chinese - without any hint of irony at all.

And yes, it is all relative - I have found Chinese in general to be highly racist, and the mere fact of hiring someone from Ghana would be seen as progressive -

Particularly as, at “first blush” Ghana is not going to thought of as “native English Speakers” (which at the very least is going to require a white face)

I lived in Japan for 25 years prior to Taiwan, and it’s often just as bad. My former in-laws (Japanese) told me they had absolutely no problem with their precious daughter marrying an American, and then added it would be different if I had been black.

One of the reasons that I decided to work for April was that her place seemed to not be one of the typical fast-food model of English teaching. There aren’t any native Chinese speakers as teachers so the foreign teachers have to teach grammar and have real lessons.

When Ms. Z was fired and April needed another part time teacher, I recommended an American friend who has been teaching here for five years. He didn’t even last through one 120 minute class because there wasn’t a detailed lesson plan. He’s used to the large school chains which do all the planning and you only need to show up and be entertaining.

I did think that April was progressive because she had Mary and that Mary was a long-time employee. For all the talk she had about being a family, paying some less simply because she’s black felt like a kick in the gut.

As a small school, the question of attracting students because of the teacher being young and blond is not really the case, especially considering that she hired me, a middle aged man.

There are going rates for foreign English teachers. There are a limited number of foreigners and a lot of job mobility for most of us, so places can’t really pay us too much less.

Over in IMHO, Skald has a thread about if you can remain friends with a friend who breaks up with a spouse because he got crippled. I couldn’t see how to remain in a small school with someone who was willing to screw over someone just because she could, even if it didn’t have anything to do with race. Throw in the race factor and there was no way to continue my employment.