After going through this topic, I can understand the points made by most people here, but, I think that some of us need to become a little more realistic. I have been a teacher here in China for quite a long time. I have been the director of studies at 3 large schools. I agree that it's really not fair that your salary is somewhat dependent on what colour of skin you have. But, that is simply a reality here. I didn't make the rules but if we choose to live in this culture we need to accept the way things are. Is it fair? No. Is it the reality? Yeah! The employers view (usually but not always) is one of practicality and economics not racism. Remember, these schools are businesses, not government funded educational centers. The students and/or their parents are customers. It's the customers that are driving the market for predominately white native speakers because they (regardless of the reality), believe that this is what is best for their children. I have had parents withdraw their children from schools because I wouldn't move their child out of a class with a non-white, non-native English speaker even though they were very qualified and an excellent teacher (which is why I refused to move the students). Additionally, if you wanted to go learn, let's say - Italian, and you had to pay exactly the same price for a native speaker or a non-native speaker, who would you choose? If you said the non-native speaker, your full of it. But, if I could pay less to have the non-native speaker then all of a sudden, the non-native speaker has become much more marketable and I would consider using them until I got to a level where the native speaker could be of more benefit.

That said, there are a lot of non-native English speakers teaching here that are excellent teachers and deserve to be paid more. There are also a lot of native English speakers teaching here that shouldn't be teaching at at all. But, as long as the market demands a white, neutral accented, native English speaker; that's exactly what the schools will offer. It's a simple case of supply and demand.