In Trump era, minority anxiety up, civil rights complaints steady

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.

Minority enrollment hurt at public law schools

By PATRICK LYONS
Capital News Service
LANSING– Michigan public law schools are admitting fewer minority students than most of the state’s private law schools, a new study shows. The reason, experts say, is a 2006 constitutional provision, Proposal 2, which prohibits public colleges and universities from considering the race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin of applicants. The University of Michigan and Wayne State University have public law schools with 22 and 16 percent minority enrollment respectively. The state’s private ones are Michigan State University, Thomas M. Cooley and the University of Detroit Mercy. The minority enrollment rate for these institutions ranges from 19 to 27 percent.