How should X-Men reflect the bigotry of modern times?

[Ororo101]

I am going to make simple

Real World- 60% apathetic to minorities, 20% Racist to minorities, 20% care about minorities

Marvel 60% Racist to minorities, 30 apathetic to minorities, 10% care about minorities

Of course the numbers are made up but for the things to happen in Marvel the larger majority of humans have to HATE Mutants. When real life has taught us racists are in the clear minority BUT since majority people of don't get involved it still stays around. The majority of people in the US believe that legal immigrant kids shouldn't be lock up in cages,But the majority also don't care enough to go out there way to fix it. Marvel doesn't make sense when you collectively pay attention to every thing going on. Yeah I guess we have agree to disagree but you are saying that after War of Realms and Secret Empire that humans wouldn't be afraid Superhumans/Metahumans as well. There is no logic that adds up that people who are afraid mutants replacing them wouldn't also be afraid of superhumans doing them what has already happened. "Captain America" and superhumans can take over world and be forgiven but mutants and mutants only are the devil always? That doesn't make sense.

I don’t think you realize the extreme leaps in logic you’re making here though with those numbers and assumptions about the general populace of the MU and their opinions? There is no way of actually knowing or being able to say that X percentage of humans “hate” mutants going by what we’ve been told over the years? As I said in my last post, it would be a lot more realistic and palatable to some of the X readership if more people were being shown being allies to mutantkind. Fully agree and think that would be a great idea so it doesn’t seem so off balanced. But while we’ve seen a majority of human interactions with the X-men being that of fear, and a subset of those being prone to outright hate and bigotry, we’ve also seen many instances where people were in awe of them, taken aback at how heroic they are, surprised that mutants would go out of their way to save them, and yes even in some cases fans of them. Not in the majority of storylines of course because the X-men mostly come into contact with groups and power structures within the MU that are trying to persecute and/or kill them. But it’s a leap to say that 60% of people on Earth in the MU have an outright and overboiling “hatred” for mutantkind. Fear is different than hate in that regard, even though one can and does occasionally lead to the other. Fear is Kitty Pryde being afraid of Nightcrawler for many issues because of his distinctly stark appearance and physical features. Hate is Senator Kelly fighting for years to implement legislative endorsed plans to eradicate the “mutant menace”. So it’s more appropriate to me to say that the majority of humans on Earth fear mutantkind out of general misunderstanding and unfamiliarity with them and people “different” to them. But to say that the majority of people are frothing at the mouth, marching for mutant death is a gross misstatement. As you said if we’re being realistic here, the majority of people have their own lives, families, friends, jobs, etc. going on and don’t necessarily have the time or energy to “hate” mutants like that. But they damn sure would be afraid that someone in their family might “turn into” one. That’s different from Captain America and other superheroes doing things that cause mass disruptions in human affairs throughout the years. Countries start, instigate, and go to war all the time that cause casualties and human casualties. But it’s accepted at some point as being part of life and eventually people move on. Compare anti German and Japanese sentiment 70 years ago as opposed to 40 or so years ago until now. I’m sure people thought they’d never be forgiven but here we are where they are now actively part of the global community again. People have short memory when it comes to meta humans and their outlandish and fantastical infighting and such. It’s easier to ignore/move on/accept as part of life that conflicts will arise. Much easier to do that with global issues than to deal with it within the confines of your own home when your child starts turns blue one morning and can suddenly read your mind. Like I said before. The mutant issue is distinctly different because for more human beings it would be FAR too personal of a matter. As opposed to whatever shenanigans Hydra, or Reed Richards, or Cap are up to now. At least they are “humans” trying to save the world most of the time. The mutants of different as they are a distinct and personal bombshell deviation from normalcy that you as a human at times would have to deal with directly. Not watch at home ok your tv. In a world where superheroics and all that comes along with that are considered commonplace, mutant issues would still hit far too close to home. That’s it. And it makes sense for that reason, at least to me.

Also a world where the majority of people in it are actually racist and openly so is not so crazy and far off as you have explained it to be. Since that was literally the case not even 100 years ago. Society finds way to excuse and ignore atrocities with their eyes wide open when they system in place is beneficial to them. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone at this point much less “too out there” to apply to a modern-day comic storyline.

[David Walton]

My God mutants at the White House and no one is shooting them down.

There's also another point where some spaceships are launching an invading attack against the White House and the mutants participate in attempting to defeat them. They even participate at a parade and are present at the Hulk's acceptance speech ceremony near the Army, and none of the members of the crowd seem to take major issue with this. I just wonder if it had crossed the minds of any of the mutants (and maybe Spider-Man) in wanting to be granted amnesty. I suppose that just goes to show the inconsistency in the worldbuilding (Incredible Hulk #278-279, December 1982-January 1983):

I feel like it wasn't until GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS and DAYS OF FUTURE PAST took hold (a few years after publication) that anti-human sentiment became a huge issue for the X-Men. Xavier had a good relationship with the government for the most part and the X-Men operated almost like a conventional superhero team until the mid-to-late 80s. They were more likely to have space adventures that confront bigotry. I think when Rachel came over from the DOFP timeline that was when the tide really turned and there was this sense of approaching doom. Pretty soon after, Xavier was brutally attacked at the college he was a professor at and there was Magneto's trial. And it's weird to think that Xavier, who is thought of as the leader of the mutant rights movement, was actually sidelined by his injuries and subsequent leave of absence, when things were getting really bad.

[Electricmastro]

I feel like it wasn't until GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS and DAYS OF FUTURE PAST took hold (a few years after publication) that anti-human sentiment became a huge issue for the X-Men. Xavier had a good relationship with the government for the most part and the X-Men operated almost like a conventional superhero team until the mid-to-late 80s. They were more likely to have space adventures that confront bigotry. I think when Rachel came over from the DOFP timeline that was when the tide really turned and there was this sense of approaching doom. Pretty soon after, Xavier was brutally attacked at the college he was a professor at and there was Magneto's trial. And it's weird to think that Xavier, who is thought of as the leader of the mutant rights movement, was actually sidelined by his injuries and subsequent leave of absence, when things were getting really bad.

Yeah whether it was intentional or not, I suppose Claremont really did lead many later writers to emphasize more antagonism against mutants to the point of pigeonholing what kinds of stories could be told, and although Stan Lee wrote the X-Men facing bigotry in the 1960s, I for some reason felt that that sort of X-Men was were more likely to focus on fighting aliens, dinosaurs, and vampires, and would have fun and enjoyment reading about those adventures overall.

Perhaps Claremont later sort of fell into that trap as well, particularly his writing in Uncanny X-Men #388, in which it's pointed out that people would noticeably come to the defense of blacks, Asians, or Jews and not mutants, even though there are black mutants, Asian mutants, and Jewish mutants. Adding to the disconnect further is it being mentioned that heroic mutants are feared in addition to villainous ones because of the power they have, a point which other books such as Avengers and Fantastic Four seemed to fail to follow-up on and mention in some significant capacity, at least not that I know of, as the non-mutant heroes have powers not too different from the mutant ones.

I think there's a limit to how many times "protecting a world that hates and fears them" can be said before it starts to become a ridiculous joke that needs reworking, because I think it just really does goes to show the failure with the writers having consistent and convincing (and preferably interesting) worldbuilding on Earth-616 despite how long writers have been writing for X-Men.