The X-Men sharing the same world as other heroes can cause problems

[Corey W]

This was not an issue when there was tighter editorial control in the Marvel line.
Or even when Clairmont was writing the Xmen.

He used to reference the outside Marvel Universe ALL the time. The Xmen fought Arkon (an Avengers foe).

Jean Grey hung out with Colleen Wing and Misty Knight from the Power Man/Iron Fist book. Professor X used to call on
Dr. Strange for help. Spider Man used to show up every now and again.

It wasn't until Clairmont left that the Xbooks became ridiculously insular.

The difference in the public's attitudes toward Metas and Mutants was easily explained by the fact that for most of the Xmens history they were a clandestine group. The most vocal Mutant in the silver age was Magneto.

The FF and the Avengers were P.R. savvy from the very start. It helped that both Iron Man/Stark and Reed Richards had strong government ties.

If the most visible member of the Meta community was the Silver Age Hulk, Metas would have had an image problem as well.

This is a great point and I would expand on it some. In universe, mustant hatred on a wide scale is relatively recent. As recently as 15 years ago (pre-FF #1) the existence of mutants was not widely known. Throughout most of the Marvel-Age (since FF #1) the only visible mutants have been either Magneto and his cronies or the Scarlet Witch. Since the public's knowledge of mutants stems almost entirely from terrorists and the one, good former terrorist who married a robot it is not surprising that they are scared.

Xavier intentionally kept himself and the X-Men hidden and for years and, even while speaking on mutant rights, Xavier made the decision to "pass" as a normal human. In universe, it has only been a couple of years that people had any idea that mutants attended the Xavier school.

I thought it was very interesting when Xavier went on t.v. for a debate while he was still pretending to be a normal human and the Beast joined in via sattellite. He had the Avengers logo in the background and was referred to as one of the most famous mutants in the world, the "former Avenger", Hank McCoy. And in universe that is how it is. The only known "hero" mutants were Wanda and Hank. As far as the public was concerned most mutants were villains.

[darkmorgado]

This topic is like a dead horse.......

Surprisingly tasty as a burger as long as you don't know what you're eating?

[The Black Guardian]

If they really want to keep up the emo-tastic "feared and hated" BS, they need to establish an in story reason. Generic bias towards super powered people just reads as stupid.

If they decided to establish a like between the X-gene and an innate disposition toward evil, it would go a long way. Have it be a shared sequence with demons or something, with definitive markers that could distinguish a mutant from any other super person (like "666" on thier forehead or something). Anything less is more than a little ridiculous.

There's no need to establish any of that. In fact, it could probably be proven the opposite. There are far more "evil" people who stumble into their powers than there have ever been "evil" mutants, for instance.

It's far more realistic to just have it "read as stupid," because that's what humanity has always done in the real world.

Ii can understand predjudice for it's own sake. The problem in the MU is that there is a public readily accepting of the FF and the Avengers but then a sudden hatred when it comes to mutants?

Hate isn't that selective. It tends to be broad and ignorant. There would be no mincing and adoring of She-Hulk while Storm is ostracized.

So, unless there's some defining characteristic, it needs to be all or nothing. Either the public hates and fears super people or they don't.

Wrong. Hate is always always always that selective. It's like Chekov liking the one gynobot and not liking the other one because she's just like the first. The things some people hate about one group tend to be present in their own. They just ignore them. People like the FF are okay, because they're part of the tribe. Mutants are not. That's it.

And then we've also seen mutants being popular in the books. X-Men have been asked for autographs by fans. Women flirt with Nightcrawler. People were clamouring to be turned into X-Men. A mutant whorehouse turned a profit. And then there was X-Statix.

[mikekerrIII]

Of course there is. Bigotry doesn't just spring out of nowhere, it's propagated by people who want to maintain their economic and political power. After all, you couldn't exactly maintain the rigid order needed for a plantation economy if the landowners saw the slaves working the fields as their equals. But what exactly do the people in the MU stand to gain from persecuting mutants?

What does nyone now gain from persecuting Gays, Blacks or any other minority?

[Alex6166]

You think the mutants might think of superheroes who weren't born that way as freaks. I mean, they were born that way, Steve Rogers had to take a formula and Tony Stark has a raging drinking problem. That's a power, I think.

[darkmorgado]

What does nyone now gain from persecuting Gays, Blacks or any other minority?

In the UK, it's led to the BNP getting more and more votes for persecuting muslims.

Standing against gay marriage is a vote winner on both sides of the pond.

In politics it can gain you a lot if you know how to prey on people's ignorance and fear.

Just look at GOP and the Uk Conservative Party. They thrive on it.

The easiest, most cynical way to gain any kind of influence is to prey on people's fears and prejudices.