Informing the right-wing push to dismantle practices promoting diversity, equity and inclusion is the notion that these policies, meant to work against both implicit and explicit racism, are themselves somehow racist — a reverse racism that supposedly compromises merit-based values that ensure competency in key institutions.
Following the lead of Gov. Bill Lee and the statehouse’s GOP supermajority, which passed the Dismantle DEI in Employment Act earlier this year, this anti-DEI moral panic has made its way to the Hamilton County Board of Education.
At issue during a school board meeting Monday was Hamilton County Schools’ educator diversity policy, which stipulates (as outlined in a 2019 state law now deemed defunct by this year’s anti-DEI law) that the school system set diversity goals to hire teaching staff reflecting the demographics of the district’s student population.
School board member Larry Grohn, R-East Ridge, called the school system’s educator diversity initiative, based on a misunderstanding of federal discrimination law, “a racist policy.”
(IN THE NEWS: Hamilton County school board members question educator diversity policy)