Metro Nashville Council Passes Resolution Requesting Metro Employees Undergo Implicit Bias Training, Allocates over $20 Million in Taxpayer Funds for Economic Recovery

 

The Metro Nashville Council passed a resolution requesting that Metro Nashville employees undergo implicit bias training at its Tuesday meeting.

A late resolution was filed by councilmembers Joy Styles, Sandra Sepulveda, Jennifer Gamble, and Brandon Taylor. It is a resolution “requesting the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County to provide implicit bias training to all employees” and “employees of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County should be required to attend training on implicit bias and the promotion of bias-reducing strategies to address unintended biases regarding race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics.” No one raised an objection to the resolution coming to a vote. The resolution passed by voice vote with Councilmember Allen abstaining.

Cornell University defines implicit bias as “an unconscious, unintentional bias. Unlike explicit bias, which an individual is conscious and knowledgeable of, implicit bias exists when an individual does not have direct control or understanding of their perceptions and motivations. These biases are likely formed by schemas or associations in the brain that link two ideas together (i.e. a group of people with a trait), and these associations likely form through a combination of early experiences, affective experiences, and learned cultural biases.”

Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire wrote about implicit bias in 2017.

For years, the left has pushed the notion that Americans are “implicitly biased.” Hillary Clinton repeated this trope throughout the campaign. In her first debate with Donald Trump, Hillary told NBC’s Lester Holt, “I think implicit bias is a problem for everyone, not just police. I think, unfortunately, too many of us in our great country jump to conclusions about each other.” She actually proposed that the federal government spend cash “to help us deal with implicit bias by retraining a lot of our police officers.”

He continued:

One of the most frequently invoked proofs that Americans are racist comes courtesy of the pseudoscience known as the Implicit Association Test. The IAT is a simple test in which you are asked to associate a face with a word; typically, leftists say that the studies show that both white and black people associate criminal words with black faces.

It is believed by many on the Right that implicit bias training is in the same category as the teaching of Critical Race Theory.

Yes, Every Kid

The council also considered RS2022-1365, a “resolution approving a contract between the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County and Axon Enterprise, Inc. to provide tasers, taser cartridges and accessories for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department” spurred a lengthy discussion and received two motions to defer. It was sponsored by council members Burkley Allen and Erin Evans. One motion to defer for two council meetings was defeated and the other to defer indefinitely was defeated as well. This motion passed 24-3 with 9 abstentions.

More than $70 million in federal taxpayer funds appropriations were also considered. RS2021-1303, sponsored by councilmembers Kyonzte Toombs, Sharon Hurt, Brandon Taylor, and Jonathan Hall, is a resolution “requesting the COVID-19 Financial Oversight Committee to recommend to the Metropolitan Council the appropriation of not less than $70,000,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to be appropriated to the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Community Development for economic development in disadvantaged communities, with particular emphasis on Bordeaux and North Nashville and for funding of the Nashville Small Business Recovery Fund.”

Councilmember Toombs withdrew this resolution as she said that working with others, including Director Pogue, led her to support other legislation including RS2022-1356, a “resolution appropriating $20,00,000.00 in American Rescue Plan Act funds from Fund #30216 to create a Nashville Small Business Recovery Fund” helped accomplish her goal.

This resolution would have allocated $25 million a year for two years for “economic development in economically disadvantaged communities in Nashville.” $15 million is reserved for the economic development of Jefferson Street and $10 million is reserved for the North Nashville and Bordeaux community. It also would have provided $10 million a year for two years to the Nashville Small Business Recovery Program to “support local economic development by maintaining small business operations and creating/retaining employment in Metropolitan Nashville.”

RS2022-1356, sponsored by councilmembers Jennifer Gamble, Courtney Johnston, Kyonzte Toombs, Burkley Allen, Ginny Welsch, Zulfat Suara, Sharon Hurt, and Brandon Taylor, passed by voice vote. The $20 million is split amongst $9 million for grants, $2 million for technical assistance, marketing and outreach, and $9 million for a loan program.

Other issues on the agenda dealt with license plate readers, zoning, zoning exemptions, further allocations of funds, contract approvals, and grant approvals. Metro Council also approved several board and commission appointments.

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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Metro Council Meeting February 1st” by Metro Nashville.

 

 

 

 

 

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6 Thoughts to “Metro Nashville Council Passes Resolution Requesting Metro Employees Undergo Implicit Bias Training, Allocates over $20 Million in Taxpayer Funds for Economic Recovery”

  1. 83ragtop50

    I have had the displeasure of reading and hearing many of the comments from this council. They are undoubtedly some of the most deranged people I have ever heard. Some struggle to put a meaningful sentence together. There are a couple of exceptions but their common sense actions are drowned out by the rabble.

  2. Steve Allen

    I wonder if the training program will differentiate between bias and common sense. Let me give you an example. A young woman is walking along the sidewalk in San Francisco and sees 3 disheveled men standing on the corner drinking beer and behaving poorly. Her current path will take her within arm’s reach of the group. Will she be exhibiting implicit bias if she walks to the other side of the street to avoid the three?

    Again, as I read the news daily, I read article after news article about non-white men aged 13 to 30 shooting, beating, and killing other people. So, if I am walking down the sidewalk and see 4 non-while teenagers behaving as if they are on drugs approaching me and I cross the street to avoid them, will I be guilty of practicing implicit bias?

    A book I cannot recommend more is “Left of Bang” by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley. It is about the avoidance of life threatening occurrences using your ability to sense danger through situational awareness and assessment.

    The teaching of bias training is counter intuitive to human survival. Why is it that liberals continue to do everything they can to put people in life threatening danger? Defund the police, take away our right to defend ourselves using firearms, be forced to get a shot that is killing hundreds of thousands of people globally, and now they want to brainwash you into believing that all white people are racists and that scum bag street people and non-white street thugs should never be held in suspicion.

    I am not a racist, but on the other hand I am not an idiot. What separates intelligent people from the “also ran” is the ability to learn from life’s experiences, whether experienced by ourselves or others. In the two situations I listed above, there is no question that I would do all I could to avoid those encounters. In the early 1970s, when I was a gullible young adult I rode me bike up to a street corner and stopped at the traffic light. On that corner were standing four or five black young adults. By the time the light turned green my wallet was empty.

  3. Dr Ken

    Implicit Bias Training? That is simply repackaged CRT, something generated by the now fading woke movement by those wanting to keep their own relevance. Training is clearly needed, desperately needed, but not by the public employees. Needed is BCS training henceforth known as Basic Common-Sense training. Council, get up to speed, represent your constituents wisely.

  4. mikey whipwreck

    more government waste on made up issues

    the left loves this stuff

    who’s sister’s cousin owns the ‘training’ company?

    1. Deb

      Can you explain your view. A strong statement ,. needs a compilation of examples or it’s just a off the cuff opinion. Everyone has a opinion. Everyone also farts

  5. rick

    MORONS !! Commie “The Taxman” Cooper may need to raise property taxes again for such wise spending. There is no mid term accountability for these morons (council members), wasting money to appease a certain voting block (insuring their voter base) and spending our money like a bunch of drunk sailors. With my apologies to drunk sailors as they will be in Nashville one day as street people with more rights than the tax paying citizens, thanks to Commie Cooper and the morons on the council. Government at work, disgusting!

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