The Consequences of Social Justice Fundamentalism at Brooks School
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
The demand for DEI consultants is drying up. As the industry shrinks, what are these practitioners doing to maintain their livelihood? Many are shapeshifting and repackaging their services to stay in business. Luckily for them, there are private schools with white guilt, ample time, and plenty of money to further the illiberal cause.
Brooks School is a private, independent boarding school in Massachusetts. The school’s mission is “to provide the most meaningful educational experience our students will have in their lives.” Famous alumni include Forbes editor-in-chief Steve Forbes ‘66, Burton Snowboards founder Jake Burton Carpenter, former Home Depot Chairman and CEO Frank Blake ‘67, and Boston Celtics Owner Bill Chisholm ‘87.
Brooks seems very proud of its fealty to DEI and social justice activism, as reflected in its prominence on the school website and its embeddedness in the school culture, as evidenced by:
A three-page DEI mission statement
A page dedicated to climate change and sustainability—“Brooks embraces the challenge of being a leader in combating climate change.”
A land acknowledgment page that states, “At Brooks School, we live and learn on land once of the Pennacook people, and we acknowledge their enduring presence.”
A Statement affirming Gender Identity and Expression
A special graduation DONNING OF THE STOLES AND SYMBOLS CEREMONY that celebrates cultural achievement and takes place before commencement. It acknowledges the academic achievements and future aspirations of students from BIPOC and underrepresented groups.
Despite so much work on DEIB, Brooks seems to have a problem with racism.
On March 6, 2026, in a letter to the Brooks School community, Head of School John Packard wrote:
“As you know, we have also been challenged over the past few weeks by the use of racial slurs and a Chapel talk delivered by a student that pushed us to think critically about how we are doing at supporting the diversity we are so fortunate to have at our school. In the midst of a more acute phase of what surfaced in fairly short order in the middle of February, I had two openings to speak to the school in Chapel. I tried to emphasize the following: First, racism and hate speech in any form have no place at Brooks School. I happen to believe we are living at a time when both are on the rise in especially dangerous ways and these recent experiences have underlined work we need to do and perhaps undo in order to live together at a standard we all deserve….”
What is Packard’s solution for the racist speech?
More DEI! Repackaged in the form of “Anti-ignorance,” the new anti-racism.
Packard hired the group, A Long Talk, to come to campus for several weeks, “to begin some ongoing work aimed at growing our understanding of the deleterious effects of racism and better position our school to be fostering community and belonging for all of us at Brooks.”
In a school so committed to DEI, why are Brook students using racial slurs?
Are Brooks students ignorant? Do they need “Anti-ignorance” training?
As Jesse Singal writes in his NY Times Essay, What if Diversity Training Is Doing More Harm Than Good? “Some diversity initiatives might actually worsen the D.E.I. climates of the organizations that pay for them.”
People have realized that DEI is more about commandeering power than creating solutions. That seems to be the case at Brooks.
Brooks is failing its students.
In an attempt to support students, schools like Brooks have done just the opposite. Incessantly focusing on DEI and “identity” sows division and creates problems that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise. This creates an environment of high anxiety and reduced personal agency.
The school embeds “educational equity and social justice responsibility” throughout its Competency-Based education.” Equity lowers standards to achieve equal outcomes, is incompatible with the reason parents send their children to private schools—to “get ahead,” and is considered a cop-out for kids who don’t work hard.
The DEI Team Partnership at Brooks is responsible for BOTH assessing the community’s DEI needs AND developing Equity Grievance protocols for students and employees. These DEI activists are the proverbial hammers looking for nails.
Repercussions of DEI include intolerance, racism, and exclusion, and equally concerning are the mental health consequences of “social justice fundamentalism.”1
Why does Brooks continue to promote these ideologies?
As Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt outlined in The Coddling of the American Mind,
“We have been teaching our youth the mental habits of anxious and depressed people. It’s no surprise, therefore, that we now have data showing many young people suffering from negative mental health issues. And it’s no surprise that these numbers increase the more bought into “social justice fundamentalism,” these young people are, given the particular ideas forwarded by that ideology. But if we begin teaching our youth antifragility rather than fragility, that words are not violence, that exposure to dissent not only doesn’t hurt you but actually makes you a stronger, more capable thinker and person, it will be no surprise when we start seeing the mental health of young people increase over time.”
What could Brooks do?
Re-examine its purpose, what it promises families, and whether it aims to produce students who understand and appreciate America’s founding principles. It doesn’t appear that the school is providing the most “meaningful educational experience its students will have in their lives.”
Cancel the search for a Dean of Community and Belonging
End the DEI work
Celebrate America’s 250th anniversary
“America’s 250th birthday is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure the next generation understands the courage, sacrifice, and liberty that shaped our nation.”
Share these opportunities with faculty and students:
The Bill of Rights Institute is hosting the My Impact Challenge civic engagement contest. To submit a project, you must describe an idea you envisioned and brought to life, centered around civic engagement. Submission deadline is Sunday, May 3rd, 11:59 PM P.T.
The Coolidge Scholarship is an annually awarded, full-ride, presidential scholarship that covers a student’s tuition, room, board, and expenses for four years of undergraduate study. Students apply for the Coolidge Scholarship during their junior year of high school. Application deadline - December 2026
1 Gemini. “Define social justice fundamentalism.” 2026.
“Social justice fundamentalism refers to a rigid, ideological approach to social justice that prioritizes group identity, intersectionality, and systemic power dynamics over individual agency. It seeks total dismantling of existing structures rather than reform, often characterized by intolerance of dissent, “woke” activism, and the enforcement of conformity.”
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