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Republicans pleased about keeping racist mascot

The Redskins of Chowchilla Union High School will be able to keep their name, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have prohibited Chowchilla and four other high schools from using the name considered by some American Indians to be racial slur. In a message accompanying his veto, Schwarzenegger said local school districts should make their own choices and that the bill "takes more focus away from getting kids to learn at the highest levels." Donna White, superintendent of Chowchilla Union High School District in Madera County, said school officials were "extremely excited. It will allow the community and the school to keep something they hold in the highest esteem." Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles said "if local control was the issue in civil rights, we'd still have slavery in the South, wouldn't we?" she said. "In this case he chose to treat it as a non-civil rights issue, which disappoints me. He knows better than that." "It's a matter of record that the word is listed in most dictionaries as a derogatory reference to Native Americans," Goldberg said. [more]