A few days ago, I met a senior executive from a multinational company—a highly experienced professional in her 50s. There are only two foreign employees in her office. Yet, in a workplace with a majority of Korean staff, in the heart of Korea, the primary language of official communication is English to accommodate these two individuals. While many international companies today emphasize values like equality, diversity, and inclusion, situations like this raise questions: Does this truly reflect inclusivity or diversity? In another class, I met an Indonesian student who needs to achieve a higher score on the IELTS test just to continue his studies at a university in his own…

This autoethnography explores the politics of place, the impact of colonization on my linguistic identity as a racialized English language teacher, and the intersection of race and racism in the professional sphere for non-native English teachers (NNES). I analyze my lived experiences through theoretical lenses that inform research on race, teacher identity, teacher education, and English language teaching. I conclude by sharing my reflections/views on how marginalized teachers can resist hegemony in the professional sphere and reappropriate their racial and professional identities. Keywords: colonized; identity; race; resistance; whiteness 1. INTRODUCTION Am I invisible?Or am I overshadowed by whiteness?Whiteness that is perceived very hard to see,Yet permeates my way of being.Do…