Feigning ignorance to censorship is no different than allowing yourself to be enslaved by media. Whether it’s obvious or not, there is censorship in media. Some of us don’t realize it, and others choose to ignore it. It’s important to educate ourselves the way society won’t and to speak up against oppression. For now, let’s talk about the oppression of the Uyghurs. Since 2017, over a million Uyghur Muslims have been imprisoned by the Chinese government for simply their faith. 

The Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking people from Central Asia who live mainly in northwestern China. Uyghur Muslims have been targeted by the Chinese government for a long time because of their faith. The imprisonment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang began in 2017 and has subjected those that aren’t imprisoned to forced labor, forced sterilization, under surveillance, and religious restrictions. The United States described the issue as genocide and the UN described it as crimes against humanity. The Chinese government has claimed to have shut the camps down in 2019 but people have found a way to prove this wrong with satellite images, leaked government documents, and statements from people who have escaped the camps. BBC states, “A series of police files obtained by the BBC in 2022 has revealed details of China’s use of these camps and described the routine use of armed officers and the existence of a shoot-to-kill policy for those trying to escape.” We learn history in order to prevent it from being repeated. So why is it that Muslims held in concentration camps isn’t being talked about and is being ignored by the media and people everywhere?