I was really shocked at the responses you have received, Rebecca- you seem to have attracted the type of mindless rhetoric straight out of Mao's great march forward. I cannot see anything racist in the deep concern for your students that it is clear you do have. i do think that the Chinese authorities have got a lot to answer for,for ever employing non native speakers to teach English in the first place. Colour does not matter at all, and I am sure you agree, as long as the foreign teacher is a native born speaker of English, and does not have an accent which will inhibit him or her from being understood by his students. I was discussing with a colleague the other day, that there must be more than twenty ways to say "the status of the rain has changed" a hundred to say 'it's cold.' Only a native born speaker is equipped with the knowledge required to teach English. Educational qualifications should be subservient to that knowledge.