A new study sheds light on the other aspect of legacy MJR is committed to addressing: that of the oppression of the working classes, going back to the Industrial Revolution, and more specifically how "advantages beget advantages."

As reported in the Independent, research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, has found that "people in higher social classes are 'overconfident' about their abilities which means they come across as more competent – even when they don’t know what they’re talking about. Being able to confidently express what they think means a tendency to perform better during job interviews, opposed to working-class people, who are socialised to embrace humility and authenticity."

The research could help explain why "class-based hierarchies persist generation after generation. Psychologists believe that inequalities will continue to perpetuate if people continue to conflate impressions of confidence with evidence of ability."

​Read the full article here, and a press release here, with a link to the journal article.

Chair of MJR, Rev Alton Bell, has written a response on behalf of the charity to the recent announcement by Cambridge University that it will launch a two-year study to investigate its historical links with colonial slavery and will examine how it might have gained financially from the slave trade. Similar research will also be carried out at Bristol University. 

"As chair of The Movement for Justice and reconciliation I welcome these announcements and MJR will work with these institutions to the extent to which the enslavement of Africans still affects their descendants today."

Rev Bell also comments: "...as the educational institutions, such as Glasgow, Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge Universities seek to find ways to redress the benefit they obtained from the slave trade, the UK and other complicit European countries should also acknowledge their involvement and their benefit and right the wrongs of the past." Read the full article here.

Following on from Cambridge University's announcement of research into its links with the colonial slave-trade, now Bristol University has announced a similar investigation. This is amid wider attempts by the city, one of three key ports for British slave traders along with London and Liverpool, to get to grips with its ties to the trade.

The university is to advertise for a permanent academic post examining the history of slavery. Whoever gets the job will oversee efforts by staff and community groups to “explore, investigate and determine the university’s historical links to slavery”. A university spokesperson said: “As an institution founded in 1909, we are not a direct beneficiary of the slave trade, but we fully understand and acknowledge that we financially benefited indirectly.” One source has reckoned that 85% of the wealth used to found the university came from the profits of slavery. Read more here.

A hard-hitting opinion piece by Cambridge student Micha Frazer-Carroll in the Independent comments on the recent news that Cambridge University is to investigate its links to the slave trade. Calling the study a "tiny step towards change" that sends a "small message" she warns: "one piece of research does not systemic change make".

"When we talk about universities’ involvement in colonialism and slavery, it’s important to remember that we are not just talking about issues of the past, but the message sent to current students and academics by overlooking histories of racism.Attending a university that has been complicit in white supremacist thinking is draining. But attending one that then fails to acknowledge its role in that history can be worse.

"The University of Cambridge approaches race uncritically. At best, like in the case of my college’s dining hall, this means being surrounded by faces that do not look like your own. At worst, the legacies of colonialism and slavery – which directly affected my ancestors as well as those of most students of colour at the university – are erased, overlooked, and thus silently condoned."
Read the full article here.

Read a Guardian comment piece by David Olusoga here. 

A new report that warns that without urgent government action inequality will remain entrenched in Britain “from birth to work”. In its latest State of the Nation report, the Social Mobility Commission said those from better-off backgrounds were nearly 80 per cent more likely to end up in professional jobs than their working-class peers. Even when people from a disadvantaged background land a professional job, they earn 17 per cent less than their privileged colleagues.

Social mobility in the UK has remained "stagnant" since 2014. ​Dame Martina Milburn, chair of the commission, said: “Being born privileged means you are likely to remain privileged. But being born disadvantaged means you may have to overcome a series of barriers to ensure you and your children are not stuck in the same trap."

The report calls for the government to agree to pay the living wage to all employees and contracted workers, and for a “significant increase” in funding for all 16- to 19-year-olds in education, with a special “student premium” for the disadvantaged. It also recommends extending the offer of 30 hours’ free childcare a week to households where one parent is working eight hours a week – from 16 hours at present – which it said would benefit the most disadvantaged families. Read more here. Access the report and report summary here.