Hey Toffy! This is a very thought provoking piece. My fiancée is a Black American who came to Korea to teach English and let’s just say her experience was, well, different from a lot of her white counterparts. And there are added layers of oppression as well — someone told me a Black American has preference over an African.

I wondered who, at the end of the day, is more responsible for white people coming to Asia to teach English. Is it the cultures that worship whiteness or the white teachers themselves? Ultimately, I have to say it’s the cultures. Where there’s a market you can’t expect people not to fill the market. The racism many Black people who come to Asia to teach English face makes it a very unwelcoming environment at times. The lack of awareness of racial heterogeneity made one of my friends have an absolutely terrible time there because of the racism she experienced.