... or looked down upon, hated, persecuted, even?

I am disliked for being a Finn. Per where I am. And this is not Sweden, and the Forest Finns (metsäsuomalaiset) topic, eh! ;-)

What about you?

Have you ever felt it yourself, or do you see hard attitudes towards your fellow men?

I am transgender and did run into problems while transitioning. That in-between phase can really be tough. Although after transitioning and living full time in public as a woman I've had little trouble. Basically I am just myself and no one seems to have a problem with that. The worst thing I ran into near the beginning of living full time is a man who just couldn't figure out if I was a man or woman, and asked. I just rolled my eyes and walked away. No answer could have satisfied him anyway.

Attitude can make all the different. I am confident in who I am and treat everyone kindly. And that is what I get mostly in return. It also helps I live in a progressive city that is diverse. Acceptance seems to be the rule. I don't know if that is what I'd find elsewhere.

Eh? I don't know anyone in Switzerland who dislikes Finns because they are Finns, this is news to me. There aren't many Finns in Swtzerland, so no one would see them as a danger or anything. Surprised to hear this!
Usual target groups that get the hate are currently A) people from canton Aargau, B) people from Ex-Yugoslavia and C) male asylum seekers from Northern Africa aged 20-40

When I was in school, some other kid called me "a little black dwarf". (I'm half Swiss & half Indian and therefor a half brownie, if you need to refer to color codes for whatever reason. I called him a "fat white maggot".
We are good friends nowadays but we used to fight a lot as kids.

I didn't look at this as racism for what I am (mixed race person), I just saw it as a personal insult and returned the favor, there wasn't much thought going into anything. I would never refer to myself as a 'racism victim', I mean where's the point? A hostile move is a hostile move, I take it at face value and react as necessary, nowadays I'd laugh it off - if it's just words. The reason for the hostility doesn't matter to me, just the actions.

EDIT: When I grow a beard once in a while, I get a lot of 'Taliban' jokes which I find very funny (unless it would be at the airport, but I always shave when I fly anywhere). And since I'm now grown up, no one calls me a 'little black dwarf' anymore, so that's history at least :)

No matter what, I think you'll find that bigoted idiots exist everywhere. However, when dealing with specific kinds of bigotry, homophobia for instance, I think it makes a huge difference where in the world you are. It's one thing to be homophobic because you're insecure about your own sexuality, or because of a deeper general xenophobia, that's an individual thing, but in some places there are deep-seated cultural or religious antipathies towards homosexuality, which means that almost everyone there are deeply homophobic.

Regardless of who you are, you can't expect to find the same general attitudes towards you everywhere. While humanity is diverse, it's not a uniform diversity, meaning we are not distributed evenly and randomly across the planet. We tend to congregate, to seek like-minded people to commune with, and cultures tend to heavily influence their members.

In this country it can be a matter of zip code, and no that's not a smart ass tinyE post, I'm serious. I've been all over the States and found myself shocked at how some of these places actually wave the same flag. Growing up in St. Louis it was really screwed up because in one neighborhood something like homophobia would actually be encouraged whereas a couple of miles down the road it was Greenwich Village 1970.

Yes I know the feeling. I have Asperger's Syndrome and while obviously that isn't a visible difference some people just seem to be able to smell that you're not normal, I think it's behavioural ticks that I wouldn't notice that alert some people. And of those people some of them see an easy target and fire even if you've done noting to them. Mostly that's in the past now for me. But it sucks to have people hate you for no real reason.
Strangely one of the kid who used to wind me up drowned several years after we'd stopped seeing each other. I didn't feel happy at all. I just wish we'd said one nice thing to each other.

Compared to most I've had a good ride so far. But I know what it's like to get spat on for being different.

I'm also a furry fan (Fan being the key word. I have never owned a fur suit or done kinky things in them.... yet) and the hatred people have for furries astounds me. "Furries ruin everything!" "All furries are paedophiles!" "Furries should be shot!" The fact that people saying this are taking seriously makes me sad but the sentiments themselves make me want to laugh! I get not liking it but what kind of inbred, backwards terp wants people dead on the grounds of their sexual preferences. Oh wait.........

Yeah, there are plenty of people who dislike me just on principle, who have never even met me personally. I don't even know where to start, so here's the short list! I'm a Catholic living in a largely anti-Catholic area; married to a Wiccan, who has Asperger's. We have more than 2 children (which MUST mean we don't care about overpopulation, or are on welfare and trying to bilk the system, or both), and one of them has autism (high functioning). If you are a reasonable person, you might wonder what there is to hate about that last one. Well, clearly it is irresponsible that we procreated since my husband has Asperger's, to which there can be a genetic component, and there is no "cure" for the "disability" of not being neurotypical.

People can be jerks the whole world over. Really, it wouldn't matter if I'd made all the decisions the peanut gallery thinks I should have made, or if I had been born into those exact circumstances my culture would consider ideal, there'd still be somebody out there boo-ing. Thankfully, I don't live my life in some futile effort to appease everybody else. That's my idea of one of the hubs of hell. One of the most precious freedoms we have is one all too many people shun: the freedom to not care what other people think.

I've seen alot of homophobia through the years, for transpeople alot worse. Fortunately it's not as bad as it was. It was enough to keep me closeted though for many years. I'm used to people mistaking my gender, I refuse however to make myself look like the norm of what a female is suppose to look like. I'm to old to give a sh*t what other people think. I'm not harming or hurting anyone with my outward appearance, I wear what I'm comfortable with and makes me happy =P

So yeah I'm used to being apart of an ostracized group that's hated. Thats okay though, I spent most of my time in the gaming virtual world were life is much better ^_^ Luckily I live in the states obviously so its not as bad as err certain eastern countries.. There are a couple of places I could never visit due to being jailed or executed =P LoL, I rememeber this one white couple saying I should visit Africa because its such a wonderful place to visit and all I could think about is how is a delicate way of telling them I can't because of being jailed or killed =P I ended up not saying anything and wished them a good day >_>

I'm an uber nerd, with little social skills, so I always had problems with other people.
Also, for me it's hard to find others like me here..I always had quite bad "friends" :\

P.s: wtf is a Finn? XD

Someone from Finland.

How ironic that this thread pops up the same day that I change my "title" to the admiration of a Finn. How sweet. :D

I think I quite see what you mean, because I only once have seen a trans-gender person (coincidentally) in the in-between phase in corporate setting.

This was in the building common cafeteria when I was a trainee +10 years ago, and I remember thinking that this person was most brave, because most likely she shall never be judged upfront for her competency or character without additional layer of judgement. And she most likely worked for the Statistics Agency of Finland - not really a cut-throat competition type of company.

I know I must have implicitly met more persons not riding the top of the Gauss curve during my working life, and pity that because I think it reflects mainly how rigid the labour market is.

How is it with you - have you faith can you work on any type of job you should like? Or do you just not apply to some jobs, possibly?

Lies!

anybody who is anybody knows that Finland is an UnReal World!

Maybe. I've only been to Finland in the winter so I guess the Skaar may have been hibernating but didn't see any Nali ether :/