WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) — Incidents of racial hate and other forms of discrimination since the election now top 700 in an anecdotal survey being conducted by he Southern Poverty Law Center, though the frequency of reports has declined significantly since the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump‘s election.
In total, the SPLC reports 701 incidents were reported through the “Report Hate” page on its website since the Nov. 8 election. Sixty-five percent of the incidents — some of which were verified by law enforcement or media reports and some of which remain anecdotal accounts — took place in the three days following the election. By the middle of this week, the group said only a handful of incidents were being reported per day.
The law center said the most frequent form of hateful incidents were anti-immigrant, with 206 such reports. Second was anti-black, with 151 reports. There were 80 anti-LGBT incidents reported. Other forms included incidents directed at Muslims, women and swastika-related graffiti.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said 40 percent of all reports it received took place in an educational setting, either in kindergarten through 12th grade, or on college campuses. However, the group said hate incidents have cropped up in virtually every setting.
“They’ve been everywhere — in schools, in places of business like Walmart, on the street,” SPLC President Richard Cohen told CNN.
Trump was asked about the rash of race-related incidents and addressed those responsible directly.
“If it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it,” Trump said.
Though much smaller in numbers, the Southern Poverty Law Center said it had received 27 reports of hate speech directed at Trump supporters in the days since the election, as well.
