This article contributes to studies of race and class in English Language Teaching (ELT) by examining the local production of meanings in pedagogical encounters mediated by global textbooks, focusing on racialized occupational hierarchies in Brazil. We seek to locate these meanings in the interpretative frames provided by the experiences of two Black, first-generation university students, which we connect to dehumanizing histories of labor relations and narrow textbook representations. The findings suggest that Brazilian ELT, through its reliance on global textbooks, presents interactional scenarios that are often the site of racial humiliation. Following Grosfoguel and Sousa Santos' conceptualization of racial oppression, we identify racialized orders of being as an analytical category that allows for connections to be made between political economy and language education, including as part of anti-racist pedagogical efforts.