This past month Uyghur teacher Ilham Tohti of China was sentenced to life imprisonment for separatism.

Tohti taught at Beijing’s Minzu University and was known for his passion for human rights.  In class and on his class website, which would later be used as evidence against him, Tohti outwardly spoke with students about the necessity of an autonomic Xinjiang (the region containing Aksai Chin, a territory governed by the People’s Republic of China), and encouraged students to stay conscious of government oppression.

At this point, Tohti has been revoked of all possessions and political freedoms.

Americans might look at this case and breathe a sigh of relief at the comfort we have in knowing our government would never betray us in such a way.

However, our government certainly has.

Since August, when unarmed black teen Michael Brown was fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, the number of black people murdered by police has continued to skyrocket.

Recently, 18-year-old DeShawn Tyler was gunned down and pepper-sprayed in his North Carolina home as two police officers believed him to be a burglar; Tyler’s adoptive parents, with whom Tyler lives, are white.

VonDerrit Myers, a young black man from St. Louis, was shot and killed by law enforcement officers October 9; officers said the man “jumped out of the bushes.”  Myers was unarmed.

Tohti isn’t black, but his case and the recent cases of police brutality across America are share a theme of oppression.  The Chinese government does not stand for dominant citizens of any group.

In our country, we have a few groups of citizens picked out as targets upon which the majority of inequality and injustice is thrust, leaving the unharmed groups saying, “We don’t have that here; it’ll never get that bad; we don’t have to worry about that.”

If you want to say that America’s the best country in the world, don’t stop the sentence there.

It should sound more like: America’s the best country in the world for me because I’m white, I’m wealthy enough, and I’m educated.

I was randomly born in a civilized country—out of all the other places all over the world; I was randomly born to well-off white parents who were able to pick a home in a beautifully clean and safe suburb.

Should I take my studies seriously, my high school will scoot me off to college, the next destination along my path of convenience, guaranteed success, and—above all—luck.

If you’re going to say that the overwhelming unbalance of the stopping and arresting of blacks and Latinos as compared to whites is random, you’re living with your eyes closed.  You’re pulling Stephen Colbert’s satirical line, “I don’t see colors.”

Certainly American is represented by several different races, and minorities face challenges never faced by whites.

Not all individual minorities are oppressed.  This point I have not missed.

Minorities who are disadvantaged, though—the ones living in slums, attending Chicago public schools—are where they are geographically, and on the socio-economic scale, because of their race.

No character trait is shared by all impoverished people which destines their poverty.

It is as much not their fault that they live as “have-nots” as it is pure luck that you live as a “have.”

What I have to say might upset you, either because you see it and know it to be true, or because you believe these problems don’t actually occur.

Regardless of your reason for being upset, prove it.

Show that you are upset and that you will not stand for this.

Celebrate minority power, resist tyranny, spread truth.

Now is the time for change.