There is enormous, widespread prejudice against white Chinese teachers in the US. In Taiwan as well. I have been told by a well-known language center in Taiwan that they wanted to put me on their roster but “no students would take classes from you because you’re white so…” Precisely the same thing that happens routinely with non-white Engrish teachers.
Whites are also racially profiled in Taiwan – traffic stops, searches, or even simply having the constabulary show up at your home to search it on the word of an anonymous tip from a local.
It would be interesting to see numbers on how divorces work out when the husband was a non-ROC-national ABC/CBC/xBC, as opposed to a non-ROC-national-non-xBC.
It is sad @Andrew0409 and I hope he gets the help he needs. Every time a foreigner does something stupid, it’s on the news and it perpetuates the image that all foreigners are like this dude. I know that’s not his fault or responsibility to represent “foreigners”. At the same time, many issues we face in Taiwan are due to our “branding” problem - fair or not.
Well all I can say is I am consistently reverse-profiled. 25 years here with no scooter license, been stopped on many occasions, always get let off with a warning. Except for that one time a cop pulled a gun on me…but there’s always an exception.
We’ve had cops turn up to parties many times and they just say, yeah, sorry but we have to just pop our head in and say shush but we don’t actually give a fuck.
People say this all the time.
I can guarantee that nobody in my personal or professional life is going to be influenced in their treatment or impression of me as a result of Cheesedick McFuckface’s antics at all.
@Rocket It can be subtle. I work with a great group of local people. Sometimes, I hear something being explained away about me by saying “foreigners like this”. This is silly, but I was in the office break room and a coworker asked me if I had a rice cooker like the one we were standing by. I said certainly. She said, “But foreigners don’t need this for their type of food.” So we talked about rice. My family are Italian immigrants who farmed rice in Arkansas. We ate rice every day. It’s not about the little comments themselves. It’s the reminder that I’ll always be an outsider here. Until I see a black guy working at the bank counter, or the mobile phone store, we are not 100% accepted. Like you, @Rocket, I’m classified as a good one.
Because we see them in Japan, in many other countries abroad where they hire you for your abilities not the color of your skin.
A whitie for starters would be enough.
I mean, I can’t begin to imagine the hardships kids of Taiwanese and Afro descendents *Caribbean, African, US- go through here. I am sure their work opportunities are limited, as well as facing educational prejudice.
It is the “your skin looks Aboriginal” prejudice hyped to the max.
