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The setting of the story is similar to a 1970 to 1980 Earth.

There is a special faction of people, and we call this faction A. A looks human, but has animal ears and tails (in the sense of if you ignore the animal ears and tails they look exactly the same as human). A have the strength of animals, wisdom of human, and are all good looking females. They are also mentally incapable of being "not good people"--like harming others for individual selfish gains or discriminating against others.

The most special thing about A is that their birth is completely random. There is no way to predict whether the baby is going to be an A before birth, even with an ultrasound. And the chance of them being birthed is very low, so their population compare to human is about 1: 100000 in 1980 and spread around the world.

Ever since the start of the industrial revolution, machines have made the muscle powers of A irrelevant, and their power is viewed as a threat to humans' job security and ego. During WWII, the Axis power persecuted A, either through death camps or forced them to fight invasive wars. However, due to some handwaving, WWII ends earlier with Allied victory. But the ideology that A could and should be discriminated still exists within some Allied nations. But outright banning them from becoming workers or farmers, or intellectual position, or even doing eugenics to remove A from newborns would be a no-go even for the most diehard racists. What kind of discrimination policy would the politicians of these nation enact to make the life of A miserable, yet word-for-word, did not resemble any of the Nazi racism policies?

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  • $\begingroup$ Don't really need policies for that, you only need "tolerance" towards the actions of people who perform said discriminations o_x. I think you can find plenty examples if you take homosexuality as an example. $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 25, 2022 at 3:57
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    $\begingroup$ The problem is, think of them like Jews, I don't think there are anti-Semitic actions tolerated after WWII. Due to handwave, I need a scenerio that A is nominally protected, but are in fact just slightly better than before (think of things like jim crow era blacks) $\endgroup$
    – Faito Dayo
    Commented Jun 25, 2022 at 4:22
  • $\begingroup$ Tiny time for a "Did you know?" : Homosexuals were also persecuted by the nazi government. There are many groups who suffered from that ideology :/, and the aftermath was a little different for each of them. $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 25, 2022 at 4:32
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    $\begingroup$ The main problem is that they are so few and completely random, meanig that there is no country where such exotic beautiful women are sufficiently many to be a scary threatening minority. For example, Germany had a population of about 75,000,000 in 1980. Out of those, there are 1500 such beautiful women and girls, of whom 300 are young girls, 600 are women of child bearing age, and 600 are elderly. Do you really really believe that 600 beautiful women won't find husbands among the forty million German men of reproductive age? For sure there were more than 600 imported Asian wives in Germany... $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Jun 25, 2022 at 8:56
  • $\begingroup$ "Discriminatory policies that are outwardly nondiscriminatory" there isn't really any such thing, it's just the indoctrinated cognitive doublethink that allows people to accept two conflicting things as true that lets people think it is, anyone unindoctrinated with a modicum of critical thinking skill at their disposal will always recognise these things for what they are, classic example, positive discrimination, renamed fair hiring practice or something similar by some, a lot of people actually believe it isn't discriminatory. $\endgroup$
    – Pelinore
    Commented Jun 25, 2022 at 12:59

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History is rife with examples to take from. But laws and practices from the top down (enacted by politicians/legislators) aren't the only route you can take.

  • Housing discrimination

You can't discriminate on paper? What about 'no pet' clauses. All you need to do is 'dog whistle' to the covert racists each time it's talked about, using coded language to hint that 'pet' is Faction A. It's not racist! It's just landlords enforcing no pet laws. We can't help it if they call you pets.

  • Job discrimination

Same 'no pet' clause. Just ensure there are no legal protections for Faction A, and ensure all your CEO buddies know that for a fact. There will be a few lawsuits here and there about obvious discrimination, but a judge would have to hear the case. If it's as systemic as that, few judges will rule in favour of Faction A.

  • Financial discrimination

Just like in the 1960s and 1970s, depending on how long they took to act right in your town. Have banks and financial institutions with full protections in discrimination. Women couldn't take out loans, men had to co-sign. Black people could technically open a bank account, but they were offered different rates to whites, and different services. Loans were often approved for whites and denied of everyone else, even with otherwise the exact same information. All they need is not having laws curtailing it.

  • Sequestering

With Faction A now jobless and homeless, they need somewhere to go. This isn't a concentration camp, mind you! No, it's... a safehaven city where they can move to, to be 'among their own kind'. And the politicians are so kind that they'll pay for the relocation! Isn't that just the best?

  • Alternatives

The only way to tell them apart is the ears and tails? Well cosmetic surgery can fix that. But they can never let slip that they're Faction A. They need to move to a new city, under a new name, and cut all contact to anyone that ever knew them. And have them taking something to suppress their strength. Similar to the protocol with transgender patients in the US up to the early 90s, depending on how long it took for your town to act right. Why would they want this? Internalized bigotry and self-hate? Finally fitting in? Not feeling like a freak that society treats them as?

  • Mum's the word (meaning don't talk about it)

With Faction A being 1 in 10,000? Few people will have met one, fewer still will actually know one. So it's never talked about, other than those 'scare ads' you see on TV. See the 1960s US Gay Predator scare tactics of the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBGh9kK2lT4

  • The real power?

But the politicians can't do this without the silent majority's tacit approval. You need to keep the people scared of Faction A. Sporadic racist talking points in speeches. Keep them fearful, keep the policing up to ensure 'the beasts' are kept in check, but never actually say it's about Faction A.

In short? Look at the tactics used in Jim Crow. In homophobia, in transphobia. In misogyny. Life and history are rife with examples you can take from. As long as you don't outright say it.

"I'm not a white supremacist, I just believe in the superiority of the white man."

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  • $\begingroup$ Discrimination can occur when the laws are neutral, but the enforcement is not. This is how so much discrimination happened in this country. When crimes against a group are not investigated, or if investigated, the people are not charged, tried, or convicted, then individuals are free to commit those crimes. See how the murderers of Emmett Till were declared innocent by a jury. $\endgroup$
    – David R
    Commented Jun 26, 2022 at 16:09
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  • Businesses can demand surcharges to accomodate tails, from an extra charge to get a suitable chair in a restaurant to a higher price for tail-adapted car seats.
  • People with protruding tails are not allowed near working industrial machinery.
  • All workers in the food sector or the health sector need to wear caps for hygienic reasons. Covering the ears. Similar for tails.
  • When school textbooks show people with 'funny ears,' it is generally not in a positive context. (That's a powerful way to transmit the bias. In the real world, does a textbook show a male surgeon and a female nurse, or the other way around?)
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