American teacher Sean Jones denied job in South Korean school because of skin colour

AN AFRICAN American teacher claims he was denied a job — with a text message which stopped him in his tracks.

AN AMERICAN teacher claims he was denied a job in a South Korean school because of his skin colour.

Sean Jones said he was on his way to a job interview in the capital Seoul when he received a text message from a recruiter which stopped him in his tracks.

“Hey Sean. Sorry they just told me they actually want a white teacher” the message read.

Despite more than two years teaching experience, having the correct certification and intermediate Korean, Mr Jones said he was turned down before the interview process began.

But his shock didn’t end there.

The 30-year-old told the Korea Observer he received a similar message two days later on his Facebook page informing him “my school is one of those who don’t hire black people”.

The Oklahoma resident said it was blatant racism and if South Korea wanted to teach its students about western culture than children should be exposed to all people of western culture.

A spokeswoman at the English language academy in Seoul told the Observer it often has to eliminate certain candidates because their students are very young and scared of strange foreigners.

She said the school had already found someone when the recruiter had contacted Sean for the interview.

#Racism in #Korea's job market: #SeanJones rejected because he's not white http://t.co/tCn9jKWKmL pic.twitter.com/OmPs3wIK1E cc @mmbilal @bbcos

— Jae Hee #Newspro (@metempirics) November 19, 2014

It wouldn’t be the first time a teacher has reportedly been turned down for a job based on their ethnicity or background.

Irish woman Katie Mulrennan lost out on teaching post after a school in Seoul claimed all Irish people are drunks.

Ms Mulrennan, from County Kerry, spotted an ad on Craigslist for a job in the Korean capital and decided to apply.

But the 26-year-old was turned down via a brief email telling her that the school was not interested in hiring Irish people because it considered them to be alcoholics by nature.