TESOL, Power, and Inequality

The section in Pennycook's article entitled "TESOL, Power, and Inequality," is what stuck with me the most. Specifically, he makes reference to race with Ibrahim, centered around African students entering the USA and becoming "black" as seen in American society. This got me thinking. These African students from African countries do not see themselves as "black" as Americans do. They see themselves as equals. But yet, while they enter a country such as the USA, having a different skin color or skin tone suggests a person that is outside of "White" values and standards. Thus, Africans coming into the USA would be exposed to the white perception of blackness and would perhaps fall in the web of being discriminated and brought into the world of using skin color as a stereotype. Perhaps this sort of thing leads to racial differences especially among language and inequality. There is also a quote in the article that talks about being a native speaker is thought of as being white or Anglo-European. I think it's disturbing to label someone from somewhere else a non-native speaker just because of his or her cultural background. Once this happens, we might as well believe that we should be like everyone else, and that our perception of the "other" should be rationalized and marginalized into white society. This is as dystopia like as it gets.