Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-14138255-20161023154654/@comment-25936766-20161027121407

Alhazad2003 wrote: I'm sure a lot of Faunus are still sore with humanity, long after the war ended. And if it was all a ruse they wouldn't get the support they have now, no one's gonna fight that hard for a false cause. Here's my headcanon: There was official equality between humans and faunus. The pacifist White Fang existed and kept protesting because, obviously, some sentiments of racial hate still remain.

However, actual discrimination, public hate and alienation of faunus as if it was the new black, was not the case. Some racist feelings remained, but discrimination wasn't actually a thing now, at least not everywhere as the new WF implied.

Then came the new leader. He (let's assume male) gave great /lying) speeches that convinced the faunus that there was great discrimination, when it wasn't, and turned it into violent terrorists. Then, because of the White Fang's actions, the hate against Faunus grew more and more, and with it actual discrimination appeared, which the Leader used to convince even more Faunus to their cause.

As for why the Leader did that: He's racist against humans. Pretty much like Adam, and possibly influenced him in that aspect.

Most faunus don't support the White Fang, because they don't support Terrorism. But, most faunus don't oppose them either, because despite giving humans reasons to hate faunus, they make sure these same humans treat them equally, even if begrudgingly, because voicing publicly or even implying faunus hate gets the WF to bash them, as happens with the SDC.

TL;DR: There was some remnant of hate, but not true discrimination. New WF Leader used lies that made it seem like there was, to make the WF terrorists, which created more hate and actual discrimination (even if short-lived due to WF "punishing" haters), which he uses to convince more faunus.