COMMON DICTATOR

In the manner of some other fellow vigil-holders, I am going to plagiarize my work for social studies (I realized after submitting the assignment that we were supposed to write only one paragraph):

Comparison of Holocaust and Oppression of Uyghurs

To fully understand certain entity's act, one must also evaluate its motivation in performing such an act. I think the Holocaust's purpose was simply to appease the general anti-semitism. Jews at the time were generally wealthier than the common German. Being of socialist roots, the Nazis associated, in demagogue fashion, the poverty and weakness of Germany to the affluence of Jews (a common bourgeois tactic of attaching actual social relations to irrelevant social constructs). Thus, the common Nazi depiction of Jews is that of some fat, well-dressed industrialist. As such, other artificially set-apart groups, such as Catholics, homosexuals, and communists, were also persecuted as a result of this German-centrist populism. The separation of these people from the human-ness of the majority Aryans, allowed for the countless atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust.

In the case of the Uyghur oppression, however, the ultimate goal is not of separation, but integration. The official Party rhetoric is not of Han superiority but rather of national solidarity. There are no propaganda posters showing rich Uyghurs stealing a poor Han peasant's money (though in reality the rich Han is probably stealing some poor Uyghur's money). The word "Chinese" in Party-speak does not refer to only the Han, but is instead an all-encompassing term integrating all 56 ethnic groups in China. In Xinjiang, children are taught Mandarin but are barred from any religion - does the exact same treatment not befall all other children in all other provinces? The Uyghurs in some areas are even "more equal" than the Han, being allowed more than one child per family. The Chinese unity, however, was intrinsically contradictory to the Uyghur traditions. The Amnesty International report states that "In the mid to late 1990s, Uighurs in the region experienced a sharp reversal in policy". This "reversal in policy" was caused by nothing else than actual separatist terrorist attacks such as the 1997 bus bombs in Urumqi. Attacks were quite frequent, including the recent riot again in Urumqi. The state uses these attacks as a reason to continue repression, sparking more unrest - continuing the justification for constant sinicization and erosion of traditional Uyghur culture.

However, while the Nazi/Gestapo/SS sought to end Semitic heritage through directly mass-murdering millions of Jews, the PRC is slightly subtler. Firstly, it establishes an "autonomous region" (which in effect is still under direct control by CPC bureaucrats). Also, news of the concentration camps slowly leaked out during the course of WWII, even when the SS worked hard to censor the murders. The PRC, on the contrary, simply ascribes the Uyghurs executed to be terrorists. On another level, while Jews were denied basic living necessities like water (Mrs. Ban went for forty days without water) or shelter (Mrs. Ban's family had to fit in another few families into their small home), Uyghurs are denied things higher on the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Symbolically, Noemi's mother had her menorah forcefully taken from her, when in the Uyghurs' case the chance of religion is not even there. Public prayer and other expressions of Islam like head-coverings are banned. Also, the Uyghur language is suppressed in the prime arena of indoctrination of school. Culture in general is being washed away with masses of Han worker migrating to Xinjaing (the majority of the capital city Urumqi's population is Han). Also, the Nazi opposition to Jews and other "reactionary" groups were based solely on their inherent identity; the PRC suppression is a more utilitarian control of anything anti-PRC (such as underground churches or Falun Gong, in addition to Uyghur traditions). Still, with evaporated national identity, the Uyghurs then become part of the Chinese nationalism complex: both Jews and Uyghurs have been subject to the tyranny of the majority - or at least some misrepresentation of this majority.