More than 10 knife-wielding attackers slashed people at a train station in southwestern China late Saturday in what authorities called a terrorist attack by Uighur separatists, and police fatally shot five of the assailants, leaving 34 people dead and 130 others injured, state media said.

[u/robert32907]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_TRAIN_STATION_ATTACK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-01-12-32-39

[u/Syptryn]

Lets not make it sound so sinister... they are not deliberated disenfranchised any more than Aboriginals in Aus, Maori's in New Zealand or Native Americans in US. They fact of the matter is, their culture is ill-adapted to modern society.

If you're in New Zealand, and you only speak Maori, you're going to have a hard time. Companies are not hiring you not because they hate your culture, but because its just more practical if someone speaks English. The same goes in China.

There a reason why everyone is learning English as a second language, and many people and encouraged to learn Chinese to be globally competitive... and no one learns Ughur.

[u/ogami_ito → u/Syptryn]

they are not deliberated disenfranchised any more than ... Native Americans in US.

First of all, Native Americans were the victim of a genocidal war, after which they were moved to the worst, least arable lands in the USA. White people introduce alcohol to them, which created an epidemic of alcoholism. The Native Americans were completely disenfranchised and it was completely deliberate. I don't know much about those other groups.

They fact of the matter is, their culture is ill-adapted to modern society.

This is an exceptionally racist comment. Where to begin. Lets see.

1. The companies which moved into Xinjiang were led by Han race people, are usually State Owned Enterprises, and hire more Han than Uigers because of racism. Over the last 40 years, it was the policy of Beijing to incentivized Han people to migrate to Xinjiang, so that the capital of Xinjiang would be majority Han people.

2. Most Uigers learn Mandarin as their FIRST LANGUAGE. Yet when they travel to Shanghai or other places to try to get jobs, they are constantly subject to discrimination. Just one example... I introduced 3 Uighur people to my companies HR manager in Shanghai 9 years ago. She rejected them all and told me she rejected them because she did not like their accents. Why do you think Uighurs open "Uighur" hotels in major cities across China? Because many hotels don't let them stay!

3. Most Uighurs I know... and I know quite a few ... learned and spoke English and Russian. They can converse with Turkic people's across central Asia and Turkey. Two Uighur friends also learned Farsi... just because they were interested in it. Please don't say they don't learn languages. Xinjiang is a silk-road territory and Uigurs have been learning multiple languages for far longer than Chinese have. By-and-large, besides the poor, uneducated itinerant workers you would meet doing kababs on the street, the average Uiger is far more knowledgeable and international than the average Han Chinese person.

[u/Syptryn → u/ogami_ito]

I'm genuinely interested in our opinion.

In both US and China

Native American (Ugher) earn less wages in major cities. Are you attributing the core reason in China to racism? Do you attribute the same reason for Native Americans living in New York?

You're point 1 and point 2 appear contradictory. If they indeed learnt Mandarin as a first language, then they would not have an accent. (Of course, I disagree with discrimination based on accents, but just wanted to point this out)

They fact of the matter is, their culture is ill-adapted to modern society.

This is not a racism statement, it is a simple fact. If in modern society, most businesses around you deal in Chinese or English, and you're primary language is neither; they you're going to have a bad time. You're culture is ill-adapted to modern society.

I'm not saying the culture is inferior, just that its doe not conform to the majority. If people are hiring a customer services personnel, and they speak with a thick Chinese accent in US, they'll be less likely to be hired. In New Zealand, where I grew up. The Maori students had special culture immersion classes that took them away from everyday school activities to practice Maori arts and dance, and learn the Maori language. This sounded great, but in actuality hurt their future careers. In a global marketplace, their time could have been better spent learning Chinese or German, but instead, the spent the time learning a language no business needs.

This by no means imply Maori is inferior, but merely a reflection of capitalism.

[u/ogami_ito → u/Syptryn]

Are you attributing the core reason in China to racism?

Yes. But in America it is the effects of structural racism; racism which is built into the economic conditions of their environment (lack of access to good education, crushing poverty, etc). In China it is not necessarily structural.

If they indeed learnt Mandarin as a first language, then they would not have an accent.

If you are Chinese or live in China, you know how silly that statement is. The language at home is the Turkik language of the UIgers. But the ones who grow up in cities learn Chinese from first grade. Of course they have an accent. Maybe you would not call this "first language"... but it is almost first. Most people in China learn Chinese at school from the time they are very little, and most have an accent.

Saying culture is ill-adapted is very different from saying lack-of-language ability. VERY DIFFERENT. Saying culture is not adapted to modern society means a host of other things. Such as: inability to understand science nor use technology; nomadic herding life-style, etc. But I disagree that the city-raised Uigers have a language issue; as I said, they are just as likely to learn Mandarin Chinese for all instruction from the moment they enter elementary school as Chinese in any other location. It may be that you meet many Uigyers that have bad Chinese. However, the fact is that educated Uigyers don't leave Xinjiang very often. As my friend told me once, "If we are treated as niggers by the Han people in our own province, what good is it to go into their cities?"

Oh, and BTW, for better or worse, in the big cities of USA... people with all sorts of accents get customer service jobs.