The white man's burden...

Speaking with my sister today brought back memories of my own time in china..
She interviewed with a chinese company to teach english. Apparently, until the owner met her, she thought my sister was european - more specifically italian - because of her name (Vanessa).
When they realised she was indian, all talks were immediately off. Suddenly, my sister's preferred teaching hours were a problem, as was her supposed inexperience (Besides being a native speaker, she has a degree in english literature and has taught english as a second language in romania and india. "But not china", as the owner said). This wasn't an issue before the meeting.
I believe they Would've picked her if she was italian.
Back in 2006, dexter (former president of aiesec china) and I disagreed over this blatant racism.
Aiesec was going to place interns at companies that clearly stated they wanted 'white' interns, irrespective of the country of origin. You could be a black american or an asian brit, but a Spaniard with limited english would still be preferred over you.
Dexter knew this was a problem but felt we should give chinese the benefit of the doubt as they're not so exposed to the outside world. I disagreed, saying we simply cannot support such blatantly racist organisations.
He told me somethings, such as people's opinions, take time to change. He was right. The chinese may have changed the world's opinions about their country through the olympics. But they haven't yet changed their opinions about the world.

Om Puri's character put it quite succinctly in The Ghost and the Darkness: "You're white. You can do anything".