New data shows that within a week of the video of George Floyd's death at the hands of police becoming public, anxiety and depression rates among black Americans increased more sharply than among other racial groups, The Washington Post reports.
The data is from a weekly survey of households launched by the U.S. Census Bureau at the end of April. The survey aims to examine finances, housing, education and health during the pandemic. More than 1 million households were contacted for the survey, and more than 100,000 responded.
The rate of black Americans showing clinical signs of anxiety or depressive disorders rose from 36 percent the week before the video of George Floyd's death to 41 percent in the week after the release. That represents about 1.4 million more people reporting signs of anxiety or depression.
Clinical signs of anxiety or depression among Asian Americans increased from 28 percent to 34 percent, before and after the video's release respectively.
Among white respondents, rates of anxiety or depression remained largely the same before and after the video's release, while among Latinos, the rates dipped below 40 percent, according to the Post.
"It's hard for others outside of the community to understand the level to which we feel each others' pain," Erlanger Turner, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at Los Angeles-based Pepperdine University told the Post. "With the George Floyd killing and other killings, we don't have a personal connection to those individuals. But it could have been us or someone we know, and that does lead to additional stress and anxiety around these incidents."