A recent study by researchers at the University has found that those who consume a specific type of heart disease medication are less likely to be racially prejudiced at a subconscious level.

The drug, propranolol, is commonly used to treat anxiety and panic as well heart disease, but also acts on the part of the brain involved in emotional responses such as fear, upon which some scientists believe that racism is founded.

The study, led by Dr Sylvia Terbeck, required 18 participants to consume propranolol and another 18 to take a placebo. The participants then undertook the IAT (Implicit Attitude Test), which involves the sorting of images of dark and light skinned individuals as well as negative and positive words.

The results of the test showed that, unlike any members of the placebo group, a third of those who took the drug obtained a negative result, meaning that they were implicitly biased against any racist sentiments.

However, Dr Terbeck warned against any claims that propranolol could be taken to modulate human behaviour. She stated, “It is to jump to conclusions if people think that the pill cures racism; it misinterprets the findings. What we found was that it had an effect on implicit racial bias.”

She explained that racism is a “complex thing,” and added, “This drug affects one component. Your attitude to a lot of people consists of what you feel and think. This drug changes what you feel, not what you think.”

As well as examining their implicit bias, participants were also tested on their explicit racial attitudes after taking propranolol. In the latter, the drug was found to have no effect.

Nonetheless, Dr Terbeck was keen to stress that the findings were “promising”, adding, “It might give us some more understanding about the brain.”

Such feelings were shared by Professor Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics and a co-author of the study, as he stated, “[This] research raises the tantalising possibility that our unconscious racial attitudes could be modulated using drugs, a possibility that requires careful ethical analysis.”

He warned that “Biological research aiming to make people morally better has a dark history,” and added, “Propranolol is not a pill to cure racism.” He concluded by calling for a “better understanding” of the side effects of the drug.

In response to the findings, one second year biochemist commented, “I have taken propranolol before and I honestly didn’t notice any difference in my thoughts about people of a different race. It may be because I wasn’t thinking about it at the time but even reflecting on it now, I really don’t think there was any difference.”

Another added, “Somehow I don’t think it’s going to turn neo-nazis into people who protest for minority groups.”

A sixth form college in Hackney has spent £10,000 creating a copy of an Oxford tutor’s study.

Formerly a staff room, the “Red Room” in BSix Brooke House Sixth Form College has been designed to make inner-city students feel less intimidated by interview surroundings. It aims to help encourage them to apply to Oxford and other top universities. 

£4,000 was spent on building the room and £6,000 on appropriate furnishings, including an adjacent garden with replica classical sculptures. It is modelled on the colours of Pembroke College, Oxford, as part of the “Pem-Brooke” partnership programme between the school and the College. 

Dr Peter Claus, senior research fellow in history at Pembroke, teaches BSix students in the Red Room three days a week, running tutorials and seminars throughout the year. He believes that all academics ought to perform a similar “public duty” in light of “urgent” social mobility problems.

Last year, three quarters of the 319 BSix students who went to university were the first in their family to do so. Only 10 of those attended Russell Group institutions while just one student went to Cambridge in 2011, and another to Oxford in 2010. 

Headmaster Ken Warman said he was keen to grow the strategy and improve such figures. He told Cherwell, “We work with 13 other universities on similar programmes. In 2010, 10 students were on such a scheme. Our goal is that, by 2015, every student will be.”

Luke Pearce, a 16-year-old student at BSix, who wants to be the first in his family to study at university by reading PPE at Oxford, approves of the room, saying, “Just stepping in makes you feel quite inspired and privileged.”

Mr Warman stressed that, “If you go to Oxford it is a daunting experience. But if our students have already done it, they will be much more able to cope without being thrown by the unfamiliar surroundings.”

A first-year at Wadham, also educated in East London, commented, “Although it seems like a good idea, I feel there is more emphasis on “style over substance’”, but went on to state, “that said, this style of practice might be the perfect stimulus for some students, especially in regards to self-esteem and their perception of Oxford”. 

Simone Webb, a first-year PPEist, was more critical, responding, “I think that £10,000 could be better spent on improving the quality of education at the sixth form, which would far better prepare students for Oxbridge admissions.”

However, Mr Warman pointed out that he was “devoting the whole institution to the pursuit of high standards for all” and explained that use of the room would be open to all Hackney schools.

Helen Robb, St Anne’s JCR President, felt that, “At interview, one of the most important things for all applicants is to feel confident in expressing their ideas regardless of their environment. If the study can help this in any way, then of course it’s a good thing for those applicants who have access to it.”

Yet Hertford student Rhys Owens remarked: “If you’re the kind of person who gets intimidated by a building or a room, I’m doubtful as to whether applying to Oxbridge would really be the right choice.”

Reacting to accusations that it was “intimidating”, the University emphasised that it is “holding more than 1,500 outreach events across the country, trying to break down some of the myths that still persist about Oxford and its admissions process”.

Charlotte Hendy, Pembroke JCR President, was supportive of the scheme, adding, ‘The link between Pembroke and BSix has been an extremely successful initiative. The replication of the study at the school is just one of a number of phases that students go through to give them insight into what studying at Oxford, and other such institutions, is like. It recognises just how important it is to make the student feel comfortable and prepared for the interview process, and we hope that it will aid the scheme as it continues to go from strength to strength.’

The Revd Dr Andrew Teal has been applauded this week for a sermon given at Pembroke Chapel, in which he encourages the acceptance and affirmation of the LGBTQ community from the Church.

The sermon, entitled ‘An Overdue Apology’, explains Teal’s decision to hang a Rainbow Flag inside Pembroke Chapel as “an opportunity” to connect the religious and social symbolism of the rainbow, and to “challenge the Churches and some perceptions of faith as merely an instrument of oppression or control”.

The sermon began, “This week has been a very public one for Pembroke College, but it has focused attention on issues which are really quite public for wider Church and society.  I want to begin with an unconditional affirmation, however: that equality and inclusion, the protection of the vulnerable, and the right of all students and staff to explore questions around, and exercise the dignity of, their sexualities and genders without fear of hostility, ridicule or being belittled, is an absolute and irreducible starting point and the ground for all relations in this place.”

He then went onto criticise Cardinal O’Brian’s recent Sunday Telegraph article, entitled “We cannot afford to indulge this madness.”, in which he opposes the government’s plans to legalize gay marriage from the perspective of the Coalition for Marriage as they will ‘shame the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world’.

Teal continued, “So why is this flag here tonight? Together with an icon of Noah and the Covenant of whom the Rainbow is a symbol in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths, here is a sign of God’s commitment to the life of each creature after the fury of the flood. It’s a sign of absolute commitment to each person’s authentic life, guaranteeing not only the right to exist, but the right and duty to flourish and to build a society together where love may be the guide. You could say that’s not what the rainbow alliance flag actually means in public perception. Well, perhaps it is an opportunity to make such connections, and to challenge the Churches and some perceptions of faith as merely an instrument of oppression or control.

Inhabiting who we are is the hardest part of the journey of being human: ‘Dost thou know who made thee’ asks Blake in the anthem the choir has just sung – made thee – just as thou art… The faiths hold out to us a challenge – to inhabit who we are perfectly – that’s what holiness and perfection are, not corresponding to a set of external and often self-contradictory and ambiguous norms, but to live with integrity the path of our lives without shame or fear: and to equip other people to be who they might be – to build a world of hope and tenderness and colour – a rainbow alliance, building on the first universal covenant made with all living creatures – manifesting and celebrating the obligation to flourish. So, in Cardinal O’Brien’s words, ‘We cannot afford to indulge this madness’ – we cannot afford to collude because of our fears with the rhetoric which ridicules and contributes to cultures of bullying, we can’t afford fear.

Teal closed his sermon in a redrafting Pope John XXIII’s prayer apologising for the Catholic community’s collusion with Nazism and historical anti-Semitism. He said, “I’m not the pope – nor even a Cardinal – and I can’t speak on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, or apologize or contribute to the discussion on behalf of Cardinal O’Brien after his article in today’s Sunday Telegraph: but I can redraft this prayer for myself, and the confused Anglican community of which I am a part:

We realize today how blind we have been throughout the centuries and how we did not appreciate the beauty of all your people, or recognize your  features in our belittled brothers and sisters who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, intersex, queer, questing, asexual, or heterosexual. We are becoming uncomfortably aware the stains of persecution upon our heads and hands, and of the power of prejudice in our arguments and attitudes. In the course of centuries our sisters and brother have been lying bleeding and in tears on the ground through our fault, only because we have forgotten your love. Forgive us our unjustified condemnation of those whose gender does not conform to our conventions. Forgive us that by crucifying them we have crucified You again, and deny much that is uncomfortable within ourselves. Please forgive me, forgive us. We still do not grasp what we are doing.’ 

He ended, “If flying a rainbow flag can communicate that – you are not alone – to one desperate, lonely, or rejected soul, then I will wear one.”

Thomas Barber, LGBTQ Rep at Pembroke college, was “extremely grateful to the Chaplain for his decision to hang the rainbow flag”. He told Cherwell, “Andrew is of course a very highly respected figure who members of the community look to for moral guidance and spiritual insight. His deliverance of such a progressive and forward-thinking sermon was an extremely courageous move which will undoubtedly go some significant way to increasing the sense of self-worth of many members of, and encouraging more tolerant and understanding views in society towards, the LGBTQ community.”

Pembroke’s MCR President, Gabriel Schenk, commented, “It was beautifully written and expressed, and the tone was just right — not judgemental, not political, just a rush of genuine love, kindness, and clear thinking.” Following the sermon, Pembroke MCR unanimously chose to support the JCR’s original motion to raise the Pride flag, and expressed their gratitude to the chaplain for his words.

Jess Pumphrey, OUSU LGBTQ Officer, said “It’s great to see a church figure promoting equality and showing that the animosity shown to LGBTQ people by the church is needless and not in line with the values of Christianity. It is very affirming for students to be openly accepted by their wider communities such as their churches and colleges, not just within the LGBTQ community itself”.