On Tuesday, May 19, the African American Research Collaborative in partnership with the NAACP and the Equity Research and Innovation Center at Yale School of Medicine presented new polling detailing the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic on African American communities.

The poll is the first of its kind, with a deep dive into how African Americans are responding to the novel Coronavirus pandemic.

80 percent of those polled preferred to hold off on ending the shutdown to assure their safety ahead of boosting the economy; 64 percent of African Americans agree they are less likely than Whites to be offered Coronavirus/COVID-19 testing and 60 percent agree they are less likely than Whites to have everything done to save their lives in the hospital; 80 percent of African Americans think that President Trump has done a poor job of responding to the Coronavirus pandemic, with 59 percent saying the same about the federal government; 75 percent of African Americans think that Donald Trump is the single most dangerous threat to African American people; 66 percent believe that race is a factor in police treatment in regards to re-open protestors, and that 58 percent do not trust police to fairly and equally enforce rules about social distancing.

It demonstrates how devastating economically and personally the pandemic has been on African American families and how little trust they have in the federal government and President Trump.

It is clear from our survey that African Americans are very concerned, not only about the racially-disparate impact of COVID-19 but also about the federal government’s laissez-faire approach to slowing down the spread of the virus,” said Dr. Ray Block, Director of the Research Project for AARC and Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies, Penn State University.