Job Discussion Forums

[jg]

Hello,

I am curious about any schools in South/Southwest of Shanghai that may be open to hiring a experienced and degreed black American. I had specifically wanted something in Fujian, Yunnan or Guangdong province, but apparently I have to be more open in my search. I am having no luck with any of the places I have been applying, and I have been looking for a month.

Schools reply enthusiastically to my postings - I state my experience and the fact that I am in China, ready to go. "Hey, can you send us your phone number, and when can we meet you at the airport? Goodness, I can't wait for you to get here!" Then, once I send them my passport photo, poof! Disappeared. Time and time again... my previously sky-high enthusiasm for China is nearly gone, but I still like teaching, so I simply want to find a nice short term contract. I certainly am not asking for much!

I know that the ESL industry here is disorganized, and perhaps I could find worker quicker if I were willing to just go anywhere or work for the 20 and 25 hour/3000 and 4000 RNB offers so many generous schools have, but !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Reading this website makes it sound like China is the Big Rock Candy Mountain for teachers, but I now think that, despite there being quite a few open minded institutes and whatnot, it is fairly grim.

So, if anyone knows of someplace, I would be glad to know about it. I am also in Shanghai, and would be open to some part-time work for awhile here. Goodness this is discouraging...

J

[MyTurnNow]

As our last halfway-decent President put it, "I feel your pain." You are far from alone in this experience.

What it comes down to is that students here want "western" teachers, and in their eyes if you aren't white, you aren't "western." It doesn't matter if your family has been in America for 10 generations. And it isn't just black people...the same nonsense also applies to Asians and anyone else who doesn't look like the original Barbie or Ken.

There is also a strong cultural streak of racial prejudice. To oversimplify a bit, at some level Chinese see anyone lighter-skinned than them as "superior", at least for some purposes. Conversely, anyone darker than themselves must intrinsically be "inferior". For example, Chinese sometimes tend to look down on Indians, who have every bit as glorious a culture both ancient and modern, simply because their skins are darker.
This even applies within the Chinese population. Dark skins are associated with poverty and manual labor, while light skins are traditionally a sign of wealth and intellectual pursuits. It's especially true for women- an ancient saying, still heard today, says that for women "one white outweighs a hundred uglies." Take a look at print and TV ads; note how white all the women are!

The good news is that there are schools out there that don't subscribe to this. You will have to be tough and persistent, and sometimes you will face resistance from students (although probably never to your face), but you WILL find schools here that will accept you and value you. Black people (and others) DO succeed and find happiness here.

Hang in there. Don't give up. If you're still in Shanghai PM me. We'll have a beer.
MT

[Seth]

there were 2 black americans in my little town, as i think the smaller town schools are more willing to hire other races. however, those 2 teachers about went crazy from the bizarre attitudes. one had to go back to the US (as she was an older woman with dreads like whoopie and had the toughest time) and the guy went on to shanghai and i guess is doing OK now. if you can handle stupid, petty crap on a daily basis (mostly peasants gawking and laughing at you), you can try a smaller town to get your foot in the door.

there was a nigerian teacher as well, but he had the kind of attitude where he didn't care what other people thought so he had a OK time.

[Kurochan]

I have a friend at Shengda, in Zhengzhou, Henan who is black, so that could be a place to try.

I really think somebody should compile a list of all the places that will hire black people, and we can "sticky" it. After all, this is a question that has come up many times. Maybe we can also list schools that, at the time of writing, have a "no blacks" policy.

Shall we do this? Would Dave feel it is opening him up to libel accusations if we made a list including those who will only hire whites?

If people think this is a good idea, maybe they can p.m. me and I can make a list, then put it up and sticky it?

[MyTurnNow]

[joe]

Such a list would be difficult to maintain, and also be subject to finger-pointing and hearsay. Despite the fact that some schools may have unspoken discriminatory practices, I don't think it would be fair to specifically compile any sort of a blacklist.

[Seth]

[Minhang Oz]

My school in Shanghai, after much prompting, offered a job to a black American, but left it so long she'd found other work. However, they did employ an Indian native English speaker who has allayed their fears by doing a good job with no student or parent complaints. So if you're thinking of sticking around and want to give it a try, there should be some vacancies next semester. PM me if interested.

[MyTurnNow]

[Roger]

I am in Guangdong, and right now rubbing shoulders with an African in a primary school on a part-time basis. He has no work visa, though.
A middle-school in a township some ten kilometers from here hired another black guy together with one Englishman.
In Shunde, an African-American was hired, then fired; he was soon seen riding on a motorcycle with his girlfriend. After losing his job, he found a new one as a salesman (!).
The odd black person is always tolerated, but if there is a concentration of two or three in a crowd of 5, I guess the CHinese start feeling overwhelmed.

[clomper]

A primary school here in Zhanjiang hired a Nigerian lady to teach English. She told me that her husband teaches in Shanghai as there are no vacancies at her school.

Cheer up! There will be an offer to you sooner or later! Though my students was kind of scared when they met her.

[Kapt. Krunch]

You'll have a much easier time in China than in Korea. The Chinese feel a sort of kinship with other people percieved to be downtrodden. I had no trouble getting a job in China...especially in the south. Neither have my black friends who are all teaching right now. We have our share of stupidity come our way but at least we can chalk it up to MI2 (Mao-induced Ignorance)...as opposed to blatant dillusions of superiority/fear. Use the apprehension and fear that this xenophobic, monochrome society has to offer to your advantage!! I am untouchable and damn near invincible!!!! Muauahahahahahaha..hmmmmm

[woza17]

Last year I was teaching in a senior middle school in Hubei, I was leaving after my contract, I loved the school, so I tried to find them a new teacher, some guy from New York e-mailed me, he sounded great, in fact perfect. I told my school about him they were enthusiastic until I said he is black, now the irony of this situation was that we had just learnt about Abe freeing the slaves. I was really pissed off and took the problem to the students, they really wanted the guy, it was only the leaders. The leaders said hes a man, he will make girlfriends, excuse me, the last teacher, a women ran off with the married P.E teacher.
To be quite frank if I was black I wouldn't even bother to come here, its a hard road but I have met one Nigerian that has won them over and my respect to him, he is so handsome so articulate and very aware of the prejudice.
I know for a fact my boss won,t hire black teachers, white face white face.
But if you want to be a crusader go for it because there are a lot of Chinese that don't think like that.
Why in this day and age should we have to make excuses for the colour of our skin
Cheers Carol

[Kapt. Krunch]

I lost a job in Sichuan because I made girlfriends. "Joke them if they can't take a __ck!" In this land where everyone is screwing around on their spouses, who can tell you that you can't have a girl or two. They should get used to the idea that 1)some of their women are kinda sick of them. 2) raw attraction knows no racism, no doctrine etc.
So in closing, you can run, but you can't hide. If you are opening up your doors to the world you are also opening your hearts and your legs.

[lpm100]

I happen to know that there is a person who has an account on AOL.

His name is Dr. Yong Ho, and his address is [email protected]. His job is to find people contracts in China, and I brought up the issue of color with him and he told me that "if you meet the educational requirements, we can definitely find you a position."

Another thing that may be wrong is that you've dealt with Chinese people in this process. If you can believe it or not, sometimes the best people to deal with in terms of getting fair treatment in the job market is........... white people. That's been my experience in the whole ESL field.

Fujian province may be an odd-ball. It is near that cesspool known as Taiwan, which is probably on the Top Ten List of Places To Keep Your Black Ass Out Of.

I'd be happy to talk about this at some length. My email is: [email protected]