An interesting point about the civil rights movement
The movement itself was actually somewhat derailed at the peak of its success. The fought this long battle, they struggled with legislation and finally got the Voter's Rights Act approved (and take a look at the effort that took in the documentation of its progress through Congress... almost two whole months of filibustering to try to stop it). And then, with marches and riots and everything else happening to change people's understanding of the way the world was going to be... it was undercut by war and the draft for Vietnam (
www.stripes.com/news/special-reports/vie...alty-of-war-1.313273
).
We were well into the 80's before the focus started to shift back away from war to racial and gender issues... and the first Gulf war happened without the use of a draft and without high US casualties... and the majority of the population was still shamed by the way we had treated Vietnam vets and refused a repeat of that - creating a positive message of support for, if not the war, the troops involved. That was repeated again, somewhat after 9/11. Too many people were rattled by those events to denounce the war effort... so, at home, we continued looking at those same issues of equality, now focused on the inequalities facing the LGBT community.
But what about in the WU where, instead of going from the Civil Rights Movement into the Vietnam war and then having almost a generation of dealing with issues 'at home' that were technically already resolved and people just needed to adapt to; you add in another element to the mix. Mutants. Mutants, unlike "blacks, hispanics, asians, etc", actually are dangerous. Not just culturally. Not just making us think about things in ways that the Bible says is wrong... but in ways that involve your house being ripped apart. Or your wife being mind controlled. And while you're a little bit worried about the guy on the other side of the tracks robbing you because he's too lazy to get a job... there's no doubt in your mind that the mutant is dangerous. And what's more important, that Hispanic guy in the part of town that you won't park your car? He thinks mutants are dangerous too. It's actually the one point of common ground you have with these people who you have been told have equal rights as you. So suddenly, the person who is in everyone's focus as the one who shouldn't have rights? The mutant.
So, in a way, civil rights in the WU are lagging behind our own because instead of our non-war time focus being on civil liberties at home, it has been eyeing the growing mutant population. A successful movement would be to convince other minorities that mutants are now in the same position that 'they' were before the Vietnam war distracted everyone with a draft and sending poverty income men to die in SE Asia...and work to achieve rights for all men and women, no matter the color of their skin, their religion, or their ability to lift all the Congressional lobbyists with the power of their mind. But mutants have to convince everyone that they're just another minority, first. And that's difficult to do when you actually have power... even if its not political power.
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