this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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what a disgusting thing to say
I would like to understand what is disgusting about what I said.
only about 8% of indigenous people still speak their native languages which are rapidly going extinct and for example Pine Ridge reservation still has the lowest average life expectancy and highest infant mortality rates, along with extremely high rates of cancer due to being surrounded by bombing ranges and contaminated with uranium mine runoff in most of the reservation water supply. As someone that has worked with indigenous activists for decades I can confirm it was pretty gross, ignorant, and just plain wrong.
Are you saying it was gross because the situation of Uyghurs in China is not as bad as the situation of indigenous people in the U.S.? The reason I chose to make the comparison I did is that the author of the video makes the same comparison, and it seemed like an example that people might have prior knowledge of or be able to relate to.
I apologize that I used things that have happened to indigenous Americans in the past to further a point when I did not fully understand their situation.
I would like to know what you felt was wrong about the comparison
8% of murrican natives speak their languages, 100% of Uyghurs do.
You: China treats them like the US!11111111
Fair point. Do you know if Uyghurs in the reeducation camps are allowed to speak their native language?
The last of these camps literally teached that language along with proper grammar, mandarin, proper islam teached by imams, they were trade schools and the "inmates" went home for ther weekends. I use past tense, because those "camps" were closed in 2019. So the kernel of truth the entire hoax has been created from did not exist for over half a decade.
Interesting. I’m inclined to believe you but I’m wondering if you have sources on hand for those claims.
I think “at the very least” was a poor choice of words on my part, and it was probably not 100% fair to compare it to things that have happened to native Americans. There were legal documents from the Chinese government that the author of the video cited that would lead me to believe that there is an attempt at the assimilation of Uyghur people into a larger Chinese culture and language
I didn’t realize China had so many official state languages.
One of the issues was that many ethnic minorities couldn’t speak mandarin (which to be clear, is a second language for the majority of Chinese people) and and a result were disadvantaged in terms of employment.