Is the Warrior mascot racist?

A letter to the editor last week suggested that Fallbrook High School should be renamed and lose the nickname Warriors. Anson Black Calf wrote, “When I think of the little bustling town of Fallbrook, I intuitively know there are no “warriors” that reside there. There never have been. Whether they know it or not, there are only people who support racist stereotypes and local Native people who participate in their own exploitation of cultural images that don’t belong to them. It’s that simple.”

We reached out to Chairman Robert Smith from the Pala Band of Mission Indians who also happens to be a...