Diversity Issues
In Trump era, minority anxiety up, civil rights complaints steady
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By CAITLIN TAYLOR
Capital News Service
LANSING — The number of state civil rights complaints has not increased, despite increasing anxiety among immigrant and minority residents post-election, according to Agustin Arbulu, director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. Vicki Levengood, the department’s communications director, said Civil Rights has monitored 86 bias incidents since Election Day. That’s a 10 percent increase in calls to the department’s toll-free intake center, but it has not resulted in a corresponding increase in complaints filed. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a national legal rights advocacy group, has tracked 1,372 bias incidents in the U.S. since Election Day. Of those incidents, 346 were motivated by anti-immigrant rhetoric, 260 were anti-black and 127 were anti-Muslim.