The Metro Nashville and Davidson County government placed a job listing for a “DEI Education Trainer” on Friday, who will work a “flexible/hybrid” schedule for about $56,000 per year.
Posted on Friday, the job listing indicates the full-time position is for the government’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion division, and the applicant will be “responsible for expanding the current training efforts” of the city’s DEI office “and promoting alignment of Metro’s equity goals.”
As the position is advertised with a “hybrid/flexible” work schedule, The Tennessee Star contacted three Metro officials inquiring about whether the role is new, if applicants who do not live near Nashville will be accepted, and how much time applicants will be expected to spend in the office, but did not receive a response. Questions about who receives DEI training, what materials are used, and whether elected officials play a role in selecting DEI training materials also went unanswered.
Potential job duties for Nashville’s latest DEI professional include identifying and proposing “adjustments to the current training framework” of the Metro Nashville’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI). The job listing explains applicants will also be expected to develop “DEI training curriculum” and monitor “changes in governmental laws and regulation to ensure that training stays current.”
Other likely job duties include “preparing training materials and written and oral presentations” and “supporting efforts that build awareness and creates [sic] an inclusive space for employees and communities.”
Metro officials also did not respond to inquiries from The Star which sought to ascertain whether the city is aware of the ongoing controversy surrounding DEI, even after some have argued contributed to the purported rise in antisemitism at Harvard University and the resignation of its disgraced former president, Claudine Gay.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, whose activism and reporting is credited for helping cause Gay to resign, wrote on social media that antisemitism at Harvard was the “canary in the coal mine” warning of the danger of DEI, which he claimed is “a political advocacy movement on behalf of certain groups that are deemed oppressed under DEI’s own methodology.”
Ackman explained, “Under DEI’s ideology, any policy, program, educational system, economic system, grading system, admission policy, (and even climate change due its disparate impact on geographies and the people that live there), etc. that leads to unequal outcomes among people of different skin colors is deemed racist.”
Pundits have noted that pushback against DEI largely began in June 2023, when the Supreme Court ruled Harvard’s racial admissions standards was unconstitutional, and has rapidly advanced in the months since that decision.
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to pappert.tom@proton.me.