Globe and Mail, Apr. 8, 1998
Republished with permission

April 9, 1998 -- A major study out of Harvard University has found that popular music videos overwhelmingly portray black men as aggressors and white women as victims.

The study, published in the US journal Pediatrics, was conducted in 1994 by Dr. Michael Rich. Rich, a psychiatrist and former filmmaker, says the study should raise concerns about the influence of videos on how teens approach conflicts and how they view each other.

The study analyzed 518 videos on the four most popular music video networks in the U.S. Researchers found that violence occurred in 14.7 per cent of the videos shown, with MTV showing the highest rate of violent videos at 22.4 per cent.

In particular, black people were portrayed as aggressors in 25 per cent of the violent videos -- 95 per cent of them men. Of victims in the violent videos, 47 per cent were white women. Almost all of the aggressors (85 per cent) in the violent videos were portrayed as attractive role models, not villains.

Michael Eric Dyson, a visiting professor of African-American studies at Columbia University calls the study "lamentable but predictable proof that television reinforces the perception that blacks are predators and should be viewed with suspicion."

Dr. Bruce Perry, chief of psychiatry at the Texas Children's Hospital, says this type of research will prove helpful in determining the influence certain images have on children.

However, Perry says that TV cannot be solely blamed for youth violence.

"Kids who don't have a solid family and community value system to anchor them -- they're the ones who are influenced by TV. They are living with a parent who is overwhelmed, they are disconnected from a cultural, religious or ethnic set of beliefs...so they learn how the world works from TV."