History Main / FantasticUnderclass

* ''Literature/OctoberDaye'': [[HalfHumanHybrid Changelings]] are outright called a "born underclass" in ''Chimes at Midnight''. They're stuck between the world of mortals and that of immortals. Discriminated against and [[HalfBreedDiscrimination treated as lesser by purebloods]]. Many of the things in faerie can hurt and outright kill them and their relatives and parents can treat them as children, family, or even {{Living Prop}}s for them.

* In ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' and ''ComicBook/TransformersRobotsInDisguise'', we get a look at the history of Cybertron, where for a long time it was ruled by the Functionists, who assigned a Cybertronian a caste based on their alt-mode. Beastformers, the Transformers who turned into animal alt-modes, were considered to be little better than actual animals and treated as such.

** On Zoland, genetic experimentation to counteract a SolarFlareDistaster resulted in the creation of the shapeshifting Clawdites. For centuries, Clawdites were regarded by the majority of the Zolander populace as impure, their powers believed to be sinful in nature. Consequently, they had no rights whatsoever, were only allowed to live in heavily-guarded slums, and apparently weren't allowed formal education in the use of their powers; the only ones who could remotely be described as free were the ones who escaped off-world and made a living as mercenaries (as was the case with [[Film/AttackOfTheClones Zam Wessel]]). It took a twenty-year civil war for the Clawdites to finally achieve equal rights, and even that required them to essentially take over the entire planet and become the majority.

** The lowest class in the UCAS (United Canadian and American States) is the [=SINless=]: people without a SIN (System Identification Number). Anyone without a SIN basically has no civil rights and no right to receive benefits normal citizens can expect, such as medical care. [=SINless=] metahumans tend to be very poor and homeless, with either a low-paying job or no job at all. They are often discriminated against and mistreated by those with [=SINs=] and have little hope of survival or bettering themselves. Amusingly, in some editions, "[=SINner=}" is available as a ''disadvantage''; the price of being a recognized citizen is that if you ever ''use'' your SIN, you have a paper trail - and a paper trail is generally the absolute last thing a Runner wants.

* In Adam Roberts' ''Land Of The Headless'', the eponymous cyborgs are treated as the dregs of their society: being punished criminals, the Headless are constantly regarded as potential repeat offenders, and because all of them were decapitated as part of their sentence, they are ''instantly'' recognizable. Most businesses refuse to serve them, the police have carte blanche to [[PoliceBrutality screw with them at will]], and the only gainful employment they can find is in the lowliest of menial tasks -- or military service, which is [[CannonFodder even harsher on them]] than headed troops. Worse still, they are dependent on drugs to replace the secretions of their pineal and pituitary glands, so most remain impoverished for the rest of their lives.