The teens of my generation don’t usually think about political persecution while they are putting on their H&M hoodie or casual floral pattern dress. But they should. Brands such as H&M, Adidas and Gap Inc. all have factories located in Xinjiang, China. The workers of these factories are a part of the People’s Republic China’s vocational program, which is supposedly aimed to increase unity and prevent terrorism. Despite this alleged motive, in reality, this campaign is focused on reshaping the Uyghur Muslims and their culture.

Who are the Uyghurs? The Uyghurs are an ethnic group of Turkish descent who live in eastern and central Asia, primarily in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, or PRC. Currently, there are approximately one million Uyghurs interned in re-education camps, according to a journal by the Uyghur Human Rights Project, with the sole purpose to transform the Uyghurs to reflect Eastern Chinese ideals. The basis for incarceration is trivial, with reasons such as “receiving an international phone call to growing a beard”, according to Associate Professor at the American University, Justin Jacobs.

The lack of global awareness towards a group facing violations of human rights does not originate with the Uyghur Muslims, but decades before with the Rwandan Genocide. After the horrors faced by the Tutsi from their Rwandan counterpart, the Hutu, was revealed, international countries began publicly recognizing the lack of aid from global powers. Congressman James McGovern and Joseph Pitts stated in a press release on the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda that, “we also recognize that today other communities and peoples are facing a documented risk of genocide… we must act to protect”. By the time the UN aided in Rwanda, it was too late to help. The terrors endured by the Tutsi were horrific, it is imperative that we help the Uyghurs before their culture is completely exterminated.

As members of the human race, Uyghur Muslims deserve to be treated without discrimination based on their differences. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his Letters from Birmingham Jail, that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” If the global community permits China to continue violating the human rights of the Uyghur Muslims, it gives other groups the power to do the same. There will be no justice in the world until the culture of the Uyghur Muslims is no longer threatened. The global community has a duty to help those who are suffering from injustice. The fact that we continue to allow the PRC to intern and threaten the Uyghurs represent how violations of human rights are tolerated in our society.

Not only is the PRC using suppressive methods of terror, by doing so, there is also a prospective risk of extinction of an ethnic group. If the global community does not block any additional human rights violation of the Uyghur Muslims, it shows that such repulsive actions are tolerated within our society. We can’t just sit around and watch the Uyghur culture slowly being stripped away — we need to help by calling attention to this problem. The more people that are aware of the re-education camps, the higher the likelihood of preserving the Uyghur culture.