Next week, California’s education department will vote on an ethnic studies curriculum for the state which advocates for the “decolonization” of American society and “elevates Aztec religious symbolism,” according to a report by Christopher Rufo.

The program, called the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, “seeks to extend the Left’s cultural dominance of California’s public university system, 50 years in the making, to the state’s entire primary and secondary education system, which consists of 10,000 public schools serving a total of 6 million students,” writes Rufo.

The curriculum instructs teachers to help students “challenge racist, bigoted, discriminatory, imperialist/colonial beliefs.” This will help the educators inspire students to take part in “social movements that struggle for social justice” and “build new possibilities for a post-racist, post-systemic racism society.”

The education program often cites the book, Rethinking Ethnic Studies by R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, the original cochair of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum.

According to Rufo, Cuauhtin argues in his book that the U.S. was founded on “Eurocentric, white supremacist (racist, anti-Black, anti-Indigenous), capitalist (classist), patriarchal (sexist and misogynistic), heteropatriarchal (homophobic), and anthropocentric paradigm brought from Europe.”

As far as religion is concerned, the program has a disturbing “ethnic studies community chant.”

Rufo explains:

The curriculum recommends that teachers lead their students in a series of indigenous songs, chants, and affirmations, including the “In Lak Ech Affirmation,” which appeals directly to the Aztec gods. Students first clap and chant to the god Tezkatlipoka—whom the Aztecs traditionally worshipped with human sacrifice and cannibalism—asking him for the power to be “warriors” for “social justice.” Next, the students chant to the gods Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, and Xipe Totek, seeking “healing epistemologies” and “a revolutionary spirit.” Huitzilopochtli, in particular, is the Aztec deity of war and inspired hundreds of thousands of human sacrifices during Aztec rule. Finally, the chant comes to a climax with a request for “liberation, transformation, [and] decolonization,” after which students shout “Panche beh! Panche beh!” in pursuit of ultimate “critical consciousness.”

Charlie sits down with Christopher Rufo to discuss this disturbing and eye-opening story on his podcast: