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www.groovekorea.com / February 2014 28 Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com) InsIGhT Racism in the classroom For many black teachers in Korea, the problem begins before they even arrive — finding a job. The Korean practice of including a picture with the resume leaves nothing up to assumption, including skin color. De’ja Motley, 34, has a master’s degree, TOEFL certification and years of teaching ex- perience, including time in Japan and univer- sity work in Haiti. “I would send my resume out without a picture and would get ambushed with replies from recruiters. Every recruiter, every school,” says Motley, from Chicago. “And then I would send my picture, and it was crickets. I would be lucky if I got one reply back. And usually it was a reply back from China, or some school far out in the country.” Stories from other teachers include hagwon bosses asking, “How dark are you, exact- ly?” or bluntly asking mixed-race candidates if they identified as black. “Whites only” ads, while not as commonly found as they were in the late 2000s, can still be spotted on job posting sites. Some recruiters will tell black teachers flat out, “Your options are limited be- cause you’re black.” Although academies that Groove Korea in- terviewed for this story did not acknowledge discrimination against black teachers, recruit- ers said hagwon owners explicitly discriminate when searching for teachers. One Korean recruiter, who asked not to be named, says “over 80 percent” of academies that he works with — especially in Gangnam and central Seoul and at well-known franchis- es — prefer white applicants over black. “I am still getting many resumes from Afri- can-American teachers, but it’s hard to find positions for them. I feel sorry for them. I found only two positions for them (in 2013),” he says, adding that the teachers — two of the more than 30 black applicants he worked with last year — were placed in rural Gyeong- gi Province, not Seoul. “Last year (2012) was six, I think. It’s get- ting worse.” While some academies shy away from black teachers because of hearsay and per- sonal prejudices, he says, others also face pressure from the parents. And with the hag- won industry tightening and more and more academies fighting uphill against closure, they are even more reluctant to take any potential risks, the recruiter says. “They (the directors) say that if they hire them (black candidates), they would be wor- ried about losing kids. It does not look good to parents and may (give the academy) a bad reputation and lose in competition against other hagwons with white teachers,” he says. “Some hagwons have gotten a lot of com- plaints from parents and actually lost kids. Gossip grows quickly and sometimes it’s un- stoppable, like (with criticism from employing) black teachers.” An American recruiter, who also asked to remain anonymous, says schools will “usually” request white teachers only. “Nine out of 10 schools who don’t request this up front will not choose to interview any teachers other than Caucasians,” he says. “We’ve worked with about 100 schools in Korea, and only five to 10 of them have even considered our non-Caucasian teachers, even though they had equal qualifications.” “Parents seem to prefer their kids to be taught by Caucasian teachers than black teachers,” says a manager at WILS Lan- guage Institution in Mok-dong, Seoul, who declined to be named. He says the school does not consider race, but rather career, na- tionality (for visa eligibility), passion and En- glish-related studies. However, he says the school has not reviewed any black candidates for employment, claiming it has only seen the resume of one half-black, half-Hispanic teacher so far. Tony Choi, who owns a small hagwon in Gangnam, says it’s the parents’ prejudices that cause hagwon owners to favor hiring white teachers. Parents are influenced by images from the media — such as those showing that white people are naturally good at speaking English while nonwhites aren’t, or that black people are criminals, less trust- worthy and uneducated — which he says leads even overseas-born Koreans like him- self to have a hard time finding a job. “So, it’s not fair to put the blame on hagwon owners for not hiring blacks or kyopos (overseas Ko- reans), because hagwons are a business, and a lot of parents want their kids learning from someone that they perceive as an ‘English teacher,’” he says. While general openness to foreigners seems to be improving, Choi says he thinks that hiring discrimination will get worse from a business standpoint. “As a hagwon owner of a small hagwon, it would be in my best interest to hire someone who will generate more business, as opposed to someone who will serve as an obstacle to get students. This isn’t specific for black people, but I would have to hire someone who parents would feel ‘Nine out of 10 schools who don’t request (teaching candidates by race) up front will not choose to interview any teachers other than Caucasians. … We’ve worked with about 100 schools in Korea, and only fve to 10 of them have even considered our non-Caucasian teachers, even though they had equal qualifcations.’ — Recruiter