Tianyi Long
I had an internship in an educational recruitment company, one that helps foreign educators find teaching jobs in Chinese international schools or training centres. Usually, recruiters would categorise the foreign jobseekers through tags. Some are innocent, like the target city they prefer or the subject they’d like to teach. But there is a frequently used jargon for defining them, Mu Bai (母白, literally “native White”), short for 英语为母语的白人 (“native English-speaking White”), with which the resume of a jobseeker would be placed into a more “high-quality database” for a better job recommendation. I’d like to tell you more about the hidden logic underlying this suspiciously racist practice, and try to link it to the larger picture of language teaching and racism.
As Van Herk (2018) suggests, people often mark their ethnicity by speaking a different variety of the same language than other ethnic groups, like AAE in English. Although we are exposed to the updated academic arguments that question the definition of so-called standard English, or even the existence of a discrete, whole entity as “language” (e.g., Pennycook & Makoni, 2007), it is still the social reality that the English spoken by (maybe middle-class) American or British Whites is viewed as the Standard English. In an ESL context, learners wish to pick up Standard English for it is associated with more power and social resources, due to the superior position of Whiteness in social power relationships. Language learning, therefore, is viewed as a key to resources and decent social status, rather than a communicative tool. (Interesting fact: many Chinese students learning Standard English complain about the “bad accents” of their interlocutors speaking a minor variety of English, such as the AAE, Indian English, and even Chinese English).
Also, while linguists (like Curtis & Romney, 2006) are questioning the definition of nativeness, the education market in China defines native speakers as “citizens from native English countries” such as the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, etc. This is because the Chinese government has long promoted the belief of equating ethnicity with nationality by incorporating the 56 ethnic groups of China into one shared “Chinese” identity. (This is also why it sometimes strikes people that there’s little awareness of racial and political correctness in China. Employers can explicitly require their employees to be White without being accused of racism—because they don’t see racism is a problem.) Therefore, the political concept of nationality has become the underlying proof of their ethnic identity, and their language, despite the fact that these countries can be multilingual and their citizens are not necessarily fluent in or feel comfortable speaking English.
Such phenomena related to Whiteness and racism appear rather explicitly in the Chinese context. They may be much more implicit since political correctness relating to racism has been a critical issue in many countries. But just as Sensoy & DiAnglo (2014) and Crump (2014) suggests, the requirements of being political correct often silence and stigmatise the discussion of racial issues, thus sustain the structural inequality of race. So, I’d like to hear from you on whether you have noticed similar beliefs in your context!
References:
Crump, A. (2014). Introducing LangCrit: Critical Language and Race Theory. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 11(3), 207-224. doi:10.1080/15427587.2014.936243
Curtis, A., & Romney, M. (Eds.). (2006). Color, race, and English language teaching: Shades of meaning. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Pennycook, A., & Makoni, S. (2007). Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages. Multilingual Matters.
Sensoy, O., & DiAngelo, R. (2017). Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education (2nd ed.). Teacher’s College Press.
Van Herk, G.(2018). What is sociolinguistics? (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell.
Thank you for sharing Tianyi, which has given me a deep understanding of racism in China. Indeed, as you said, I had little awareness of the link between racism and political correctness until then. It is worth reflecting on whether our ethnic minority compatriots also think they share a ‘Chinese’ identity rather than their own ethnic identity.
Qingling
Qingling, thanks for your comment! I think the “we are all Chinese” narrative sometimes covers up some conflicts and identity struggles among minor ethnic groups in China, and makes their voices unheard. It’s worth investigating and reflecting, as you said!
Tianyi
Hi Tianqi, thanks for your blog. I find myself also in such a situation when I was younger. For about the first 20 years in my life, I held the superstition that “good” English must be spoken by the white, especially people from the U.K. and the states. Even when I was in middle high school, I met a Scottish teacher with a very heavy accent, and at that time I didn’t question my strong belief in they were speaking the Received Pronunciation because of their whiteness. I thought, “Oh! It must be my poor listening that I couldn’t understand my oral English teacher!” Of course, later I know I was so narrow-minded and something underneath relates to stereotypes and racism (yes, racism to me included). As I come to know more people who speak English from different countries, like Trevor Noah, Ronny Chieng, and Aamir Khan, I can appreciate the ideas they bring behind their accents instead of their races or ethnic features.
Li Peng
Thanks for you comment Li! I appreciate it that you sincerely reflect on your old beliefs and feel your change. I also experience a similar process. To be open and to find hidden fallacies in existing social norms are things we need to learn, and I hope as educators, we can help others during the process of reflection.
Tianyi
“The loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.” I love this sentence quoted from Baudelaire. Evilness presents itself and does its dirty business when people fail to name it. This quotation effectively conclude the the racial problem in most Asian countries, especially China. In regard of the problem of racism, I think Asian societies it’s really in the preliminary level, and only a few reflection about races has been made. In traditional Asian context, people do not actually see races, but it doesn’t mean that racism is not a problem in China. And actually, refusing to see the races really makes the problem more serious and complicated, especially when this kind of perspective is encouraged by the government. Seeing race keeps the general public a good opportunity to identify the problem, and bring them into the spectrum of public discussion. If people remain not to see race, the problem would not be solved.
Lun Cai
Hi Lun! Thanks for your insights, and yes, the unnamed evil is terrible for it is accepted by people unconsciously. I agree with you that racism in China is actually a serious problem that people neglect. Also, it’s (academically) interesting that people blindly practice racism under the influences of pop culture or sub-culture communities — I’ve seen so many Chinese holding malice towards, say, coloured people just because it makes them seem cool, while they haven’t met any in their real life.
Tianyi
Hi Tianyi!
I really enjoyed reading your post. From your post, this part particularly stood out for me “This is because the Chinese government has long promoted the belief of equating ethnicity with nationality by incorporating the 56 ethnic groups of China into one shared “Chinese” identity. (This is also why it sometimes strikes people that there’s little awareness of racial and political correctness in China).” because it helped me understand how racism may not be seen as an issue not only in China but in other countries as well. And I think that this ‘native English-speaking White’ expectation is something quite common in other countries and regions as well. Although I was born and raised in Canada, growing up my teachers were primarily all white. The books I read and movies/TV shows I watched mainly all had white characters, which I believe unconsciously instilled this idea in my head that white speakers of English must be better. As a person from a visible minority group in Canada, I think it’s even more important for students to see diversity from their teachers so that they can see people who look like them and relate to their experiences as well.
-Rahman.S.
Hi Rahman! Thanks for your reply. I’m sad to learn whiteness can be seen in many other countries and regions too. And I like your mentioning to the hidden implication of the presence of white speaker “being normal” in media which reinforce the white supremacy in English speaking. Students of minority groups need to both have confidence in their potential to be good language users, as well as in the belief that anyone from any ethnic group can be a good English speaker.
Hi Tianyi,
Thank you for shedding light on these employment tags rooted in racist hiring practices within language teaching. We must actively work to end the practice of equating ethnicity to language proficiency.
Responding to your prompt regarding noticing similar beliefs in my context, firstly, one of my friends who is also an ESL teacher in Canada, applied for a job in China and before an interview was conducted, the very first question she was asked through e-mail was what is your ethnicity? With the follow up instructions “ Please also send a picture of yourself”. While uncomfortable with these requirements, my friend followed the instructions and was never contacted again. When she reached out to the company the response she received was “ you do not meet the ideal candidate requirements”.
Secondly, I remember personally being absolutely shocked and appalled at one job interview as the interviewer reviewed the positive points of our meeting and stated I “had the right look!”. When I asked what he meant by this statement he was unable to produce a response. When hired for this teacher position, I rejected the offer as I did want to work in an environment that practiced these beliefs and hired the teaching staff implementing these requirements.
Sorry Tianyi my name was not attached, the comment posted on November 29th was Tia Goodhand!