{"id":21854,"date":"2022-01-17T23:40:17","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T23:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esinsolito.com\/does-calif-ethnic-studies-curriculum-call-for-chants-to-aztec-gods-countergenocide-against-white-christians\/"},"modified":"2022-01-17T23:40:17","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T23:40:17","slug":"does-calif-ethnic-studies-curriculum-call-for-chants-to-aztec-gods-countergenocide-against-white-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.esinsolito.com\/does-calif-ethnic-studies-curriculum-call-for-chants-to-aztec-gods-countergenocide-against-white-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Calif. Ethnic Studies Curriculum Call for Chants to Aztec Gods, ‘Countergenocide’ Against White Christians?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After many years and thousands of comments from the public, California in late March 2021 adopted<\/a> an Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) for K-12 students across the state. The approved version was the fourth draft of a curriculum in development for over four years. While it is voluntary for schools to adopt, many argue it is necessary for students to learn about the histories and experiences of ethnic groups that include Black people, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Latino Americans, Native Americans, and Jewish and Arab Americans.<\/p>\n

But partisan media outlets pulled segments of the curriculum out of context and shared misleading information about what was being taught to students. Christopher Rufo, a writer for the conservative think tank Discovery Institute, shared a tweet thread<\/a> where he argued that \u2014 among other things \u2014 the curriculum taught \u201c\u2018Countergenocide\u2019 against white Christians\u201d and called on students to appeal to the Aztec gods, \u201cincluding the god of human sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an article,<\/a> Rufo pulled sections from R. Tolteka Cuauhtin\u2019s book \u201cRethinking Ethnic Studies\u201d and claimed his writings had directly influenced the contents of the ESMC. Cuauhtin was a co-chair of the ESMC and developed some of the program. Rufo wrote that Cuauhtin and the ESMC\u2019s \u201cultimate goal is to \u201cdecolonize\u201d American society and establish a new regime of \u201ccountergenocide\u201d [\u2026] which will displace white Christian culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

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SCOOP: California’s proposed “ethnic studies” curriculum calls for the “decolonization” of American society and has students chant to the Aztec god of human sacrifice. The solution, according to one author, is a “countergenocide” against white Christians.<\/p>\n

Here’s the story.\ud83e\uddf5<\/p>\n

\u2014 Christopher F. Rufo \u2694\ufe0f (@realchrisrufo) March 10, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The curriculum includes an official “ethnic studies community chant,” in which students appeal to the Aztec gods\u2014including the god of human sacrifice\u2014for the power to become “warriors” for “social justice.” Students seek a “a revolutionary spirit” through these incantations. pic.twitter.com\/PR5dQl6mSy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Christopher F. Rufo \u2694\ufe0f (@realchrisrufo) March 10, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The original co-chair of the model curriculum advocates for “countergenocide” in his book, which is cited throughout the curriculum document and included in the bibliography. All of the original source documents are on my website. I’m not “overstating”\u2014I’m pointing it out.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Christopher F. Rufo \u2694\ufe0f (@realchrisrufo) March 10, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Washington Times<\/a> added to the debate with the headline, \u201cCalifornia now wants to teach \u2018counter-genocide\u2019 to over [six million] students in its public schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rufo also appeared on Fox News\u2019 \u201cThe Ingraham Angle,\u201d where anchor Laura Ingraham echoed Rufo\u2019s tweets that alleged the chants would \u201chonor the Aztec god of human sacrifice\u201d:<\/p>\n

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As I told @IngrahamAngle<\/a>: We should radically decentralize the public school system and give parents the $15,000 a year per child to choose their own education. Families deserve an education that reflects their values\u2014not the new woke orthodoxy of many public schools. pic.twitter.com\/5Pcnms3GHd<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Christopher F. Rufo \u2694\ufe0f (@realchrisrufo) March 15, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We reviewed the curriculum<\/a> and reached out to Rufo, Cuauhtin, and the California Department of Education to determine if there was any truth to these claims. In sum, we found the claims to be largely false and misleading representations of the curriculum.<\/p>\n

Does the Curriculum Invoke \u2018Countergenocide\u2019?<\/h3>\n

Rufo highlighted the use of the term \u201ccountergenocide,\u201d saying it had been used in Cuauhtin\u2019s own writing and was being propagated by the ethnic studies program. But while it\u2019s true that Cuauhtin used the term in his book, we found no evidence of it being used in the ESMC, nor any language that advocated for a genocide against white Christians. Scott Roark, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education, confirmed that the term and the concept were not in the curriculum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Referencing Rufo\u2019s tweets and Ingraham\u2019s show, Cuauhtin, an ethnic studies educator, explained the meaning of \u201ccountergenocide\u201d to us: \u201cWithin my chapter, it does not in any way whatsoever mean genocide against white Christians. I would never encourage genocide against any group of people; on the contrary, ethnic studies is about the opposite of that; it is about healing, honest reconciliation, and life. Countergenocide, refers to anti-genocide, to go against genocide, and to stop genocide.\u201d Rufo, he said, took one term from his book completely out of context, \u201cflipped it to fit his own racist narrative,\u201d and \u201can onslaught of fake news right wing media ran with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email, Rufo disputed our characterization of his claims, as well as Cuauhtin\u2019s usage of the term. \u201c[Every] modern scholarly reference to \u2018countergenocide\u2019 is to actual genocidal violence in Africa and elsewhere; it\u2019s not simply \u2018against genocide,\u2019 it\u2019s retributive genocide and can be interpreted as such,\u201d he said. Indeed, the term has been used in language<\/a> surrounding the Rwandan genocide, to describe reprisal killings of the Hutu, though Cuauhtin\u2019s language does not use the term in the same way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cuauhtin added that part of the curriculum involved building \u201csolidarity among communities including white people,\u201d adding that \u201cJesus himself would undoubtedly be against the racist oppression and dehumanization done in his name.\u201d He expressed the importance of \u201crecognizing intersectionality\u201d \u2014 a term used to describe<\/a> how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics \u201cintersect\u201d with one another and overlap \u2014 particularly the ways in which we can be privileged and oppressed simultaneously. \u201cEmpathy, love, mutual respect, knowledge of self, self actualization, community actualization, and humanization, that\u2019s what is really important within these concepts and the curriculum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Chants Honoring Gods of Human Sacrifice?<\/h3>\n

The \u201ccommunity chants\u201d as outlined in the curriculum<\/a> contain no mention of gods, per se, or of human sacrifice. The two offending deities highlighted by conservative outlets were \u201cTezkatlipoka\u201d and \u201cHuitzilopochtli.\u201d Both words, however, were used as concepts, not references to actual deities, in the chant:<\/p>\n

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Tezkatlipoka, Tezkatlipoka, x2
smoking mirror, self-reflection
We must vigorously search within ourselves be reflective, introspective by silencing distractions and extensive comprehensive obstacles in our lives, (in our lives),
in order to be warriors of love, of love,
for our gente representin\u2019 justice, (justice)
local to global global to local eco-logical, & social, (social), justice (justice).
[\u2026]
Huitzilopochtli, huitzilopochtli, x2
hummingbird to the left, yollotl,
corazon, heart, ganas, the will to action as we grow in,
consciousness must be willing to be proactive,
not just thinkin\u2019 and talkin\u2019 but makin\u2019 things happen,
with agency, resiliency, & a revolutionary spirit
that\u2019s positive, progressive, creative, native,
Passion everlasting work hard in action,
tap in, to the spark of our universal heart,
pulsating creation huitzilopochtli cause like sunlight, the light inside of us, in will to action\u2019s
what brings \u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Cuauhtin told us that the word \u201ctezkatlipoka\u201d literally means \u201csmoking mirror\u201d and represents \u201cself reflection\u201d as a way to build character and self-determination, affirming who students are as human beings, with dignity. \u201cHuitzilopochtli\u201d literally translates to \u201chummingbird to the left, or to the concept of the will to act<\/a>.\u201d He added, \u201c[It is] so frustrating how the legacies of white supremacist colonial lies continue to be weaponized by the right with their anti-Indigenous racism; their claims are false, and do not at all reflect the framing in [the curriculum].\u201d<\/p>\n

These terms come from indigenous Mexican traditions that affirm four broad concepts in the student community chant. According to a paper<\/a> from the National Association for Multicultural Education, the four concepts are \u201c[Tezkatlipoca] (self-reflection), Quetzalcoatl (precious and beautiful knowledge), Huitzilopochtli (the will to act), and Xipe Totec (transformation),\u201d which the ESMC also refers to as the \u201cIn Lak Ech Affirmation\u201d (love, unity and mutual respect). Chapter 5 \u201cLesson Resources\u201d of the ESMC describes the chant as follows:<\/p>\n

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The following is also based on In Lak Ech (love, unity, mutual respect) and Panche Be (seeking the roots of the truth) as is elaborated by Roberto Cintli Rodriguez in Our Sacred Maiz is Our Mother: Indigeneity and Belonging in the Americas. However, this chant goes a level deeper into the Nahui Ollin (Four Movements), as taught by Tupac Enrique Acosta of Tonatierra, and integrated by ELA teacher Curtis Acosta formerly of the Mexican American Studies Department of Tucson Unified School District (before Arizona HB 2281). This is an adaption of the Nahui Ollin, into poetic, rhythmic, hip hop song form.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nowhere do these chants reference honoring human sacrifice. Roark, conveying the responses of committee members who developed the curriculum, told us that the chant \u201cadapts traditional Mayan\/Aztecan concepts centering on love, unity, introspection and mutual respect into a poetic, rhythmic, hip hop song form. For example, the song begins with these sentences, first in Spanish, and then in English: \u2018You are my other me. If I do harm to you, I do harm to myself. If I love and respect you, I love and respect myself.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Roark added that media reports \u201cused isolated word phrases out-of-context, and have misleadingly paired those out-of-context phrases with language that is simply not in the model curriculum to misrepresent what the model curriculum actually conveys.\u201d Furthermore, he said, the model curriculum is a \u201ccollection of ideas and samples\u201d for districts across the state, and use of the materials is not mandated in any way. Each school district chooses materials that serve the demographics of its respective communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conservative claims about school curricula do highlight historical narratives surrounding the Aztec deities. According to online resources like Encyclopedia Britannica, Tezkatlipoka<\/a>\u00a0was the god of the Great Bear constellation and the night sky, and under \u201chis influence the practice of human sacrifice was introduced into central Mexico.\u201d Huitzilopochtli was also the Aztec god of sun and war who received<\/a> human sacrifices in the form of \u201chuman blood and hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuauhtin, however, said, \u201cIn different [indigenous] communities, we never believed that myth of mass human sacrifice,\u201d he told us. \u201cThe original telling comes from colonizers\u2019 accounts.\u201d While some interpretations are based on artistic works from the time, he argued that it was \u201cpropagated as a factual norm by a dominant white narrative.\u201d Indeed, these arguments are echoed by Peter Hassler, an ethnologist at the University of Zurich, who said<\/a> that he found \u201cno sign of evidence of institutionalized mass human sacrifice among the Aztecs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conversely, other archaeological evidence<\/a> suggests that human sacrifice was indeed a part of Aztec religious practice, though the numbers of people killed in this manner are disputed. Some have argued that this was a military strategy involving war captives<\/a>. If this did occur, the Aztecs certainly were not the only major civilization at the time with such practices.<\/p>\n

Rufo argues that the historical record on human sacrifice is quite clear: \u201cAztecs practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism, and specifically, Huitzilopachtli is the god of human sacrifice (among other things),\u201d he wrote in an email response to this piece. \u201cThis is documented in dozens of books, including a recent study from Victor Davis Hanson that sifted through estimates of human sacrifice, with a modest estimate of 20,000 human sacrifices per year, and the Aztecs reigned for roughly a century \u2014 the math is in my favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the curriculum does not tell students to honor the gods of human sacrifice, as claimed by conservatives including Ingraham, those figures have been associated with human sacrifice by some accounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We should note that Arizona\u2019s Tucson school districts faced criticism<\/a> from conservatives for their ethnic studies program back in 2010, which also used this chant. Public officials accused the districts of illegally promoting ideas of ethnic solidarity and overthrowing the U.S. government. Under pressure from the government, Tucson\u2019s school board shut down<\/a> the courses in 2011, even though a state audit that year found that students who took the prohibited courses performed better in statewide tests and graduated at higher rates. An Arizona law also banned the ethnic studies courses, a move that was found to be<\/a> discriminatory in 2017 by a federal judge.<\/p>\n

In sum, conservative claims regarding the ESMC are largely misleading and incorrect, given that the curriculum neither calls for students to honor gods of human sacrifice \u2014 the terms used are meant to illustrate concepts \u2014 nor for a \u201ccountergenocide\u201d against white Christians. Even though debate exists about the prevalence of human sacrifice and its association with specific Aztec deities, students were not being made to honor these deities. We thus rate this claim as \u201cMostly False.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Jan.13, 2022, the California Board of Education settled<\/a> a lawsuit with a group of parents and agreed to remove the instructions related to the Aztec chants in the ethnic studies curriculum. In a statement sent to us, Paul Jonna, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, a conservative law firm, said: \u201cThe state agreed to do this while continuing to dispute any and all liability [\u2026] Nonetheless, we\u2019re pleased that the prayers have been officially removed from the ESMC. Our team of lawyers will aggressively pursue civil litigation against any local school district that violates the Constitution and incorporates these Aztec prayers in class \u2013 particularly now that the state has excised them from the ESMC.\u201d<\/p>\n

The settlement agreement<\/a>, shared by the Thomas More Society, states:<\/p>\n

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Contemporaneously with the deletion of the Affirmations, CDE and\/or SBE shall notify all school districts, charter schools and county offices of education (Local Educational Agencies) that the Affirmations have been deleted from the ESMC. It is contemplated that the notification will also convey the following concepts, with the final language subject to alteration or revision in the CDE\/SBE\u2019s discretion: \u201cNo ESMC content should be used as prayer, or any other form of religious act, and any such use of the ESMC content would contravene the SBE\u2019s longstanding policy and guidance. [\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n