Racist Hate Mail Against Poulsbo Festival Backfires

KOMO TV ^ | May 9, 2006 | Tracy Vedder

[fgoodwin]

Racist Hate Mail Against Poulsbo Festival Backfires

http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=43345

May 9, 2006

By Tracy Vedder

POULSBO - The words are ugly and vicious, and they sent a chill through a local festival.

Racist hate mail sent to Poulsbo is directed at a young African-American woman who is "Miss Viking Fest".

But the hate mail has sparked an outpouring of love.

"Little girls," says Jasmine Campbell, " I think they recognize me when I have my crown on. They're like 'Wow!' It feels really good to say hi to them."

Campbell loves being this year's Miss Viking Fest. The yearly Poulsbo festival is a celebration of all things Scandinavian. In spite of its heritage, no one was surprised when the articulate, pretty young woman won this year's competition.

"You don't have to be of Viking stock," says Kathi Foresee, Viking Fest secretary, "I don't even know that all of us that work on the organization are of Viking stock," she laughs.

But then came the hate mail. At least a dozen racist e-mails - all from outside of Poulsbo - asked festival organizers how they could let a black woman represent a Viking Festival.

At first Jasmine says it made her, "feel really mad because you want to find out who they are, and then after that kind of the hurt, hurtfulness about it."

Poulsbo police are investigating the hate mail. They also plan to keep an extra close eye out during the festival to make sure that people coming to the festival don't plan on causing trouble.

But as news slowly leaked out about the hate mail - something began happening in town.

We asked people on the street their reaction: "I'm disgusted," Naomi Durst told us. When Linda Melseth found out, "this just upsets me and makes me sick."

And folks who might have ignored Miss Viking Fest a week ago are now coming out of the woodwork. Dan Downing crossed the street when he saw Campbell, just to shake her hand and congratulate her.

"It's great having you represent this area and congratulations on winning the prize you deserve it," he said. And then he just had to add about the people who sent the hate mail, "those jerks need to be removed from the gene pool."

Poulsbo - land of the Vikings - is opening its arms.

"The outpouring has been swift and great," says Campbell's mother Peggy Stanley. "The vast majority are there for her and support her and love her."

So, hate mail messages that could have wrecked Viking Fest instead are giving Poulsbo one more reason to celebrate what it stands for.

"It feels good," adds Campbell, "it feels good to know the community is behind you."

Viking Fest begins Friday May 19, and continues through that Sunday with the parade on Saturday May 20 at noon.

[Paddlefish]

http://vikingfest.org/

[Restorer]

I'll buy it when there is similar support for a blue-eyed blond Swedish-American chosen as Miss Black America.

[rawhide]

Ms. Jasmine Campbell and her court. Ms. Whitney Glebe (left) & Ms. Elisabeth Almond (right)

[alnick]

God bless her. I'm glad the community came out to support her.

[HitmanLV]

Amazing that some people have nothing better to do than be critical about this relatively uncontroversial situation.

I'm rooting for her. ;-)

[Grut]

I'll buy it when there is similar support for a blue-eyed blond Swedish-American chosen as Miss Black America.

Several years ago there was some kind of Native American get-together here in Maine; IIRC, the two main organizers of the thing were named something like Swenson and Lundquist.

[rawhide]

This event was held near Seattle, Washington. Campbell, a 17-year-old senior at North Kitsap High School, is half-black and half-Hispanic.

Good article about her and congrats to her: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002986345_vikingqueen11m.html

[badpacifist]

In the oh so tolerant, inclusive , empowered Washington State? Gasp! It seems that the compassionate democrats always win there.

[Navy Patriot]

It would be interesting if locals tracked down the IP addresses on the e-mails, they could be racists or a plant by race baiters. Might find out.

[orionblamblam]

> I'll buy it when there is similar support for a blue-eyed blond Swedish-American chosen as Miss Black America.

Not the same. "Viking" wasn't an ethnic group. It was a profession, like "Pirate" or "Raider."

[PeteB570]

Good looking bunch of Valkyries.

[Alouette]

Here are 2 more viking beauties!

[Caramelgal]

Carrie Tilton won the Scholarship to Northwest College of Art for her winning logo entry.

With a first name of Gretchen, a father born in Norway who claimed some decadency to Eric the Red (but then, don’t they all), red hair, fair skin, light eyes and a family name of Arnesen, I can tell you that Tilton doesn’t sound like a good Norse name to me.

Whitney Glebe and Elisabeth Almond don’t sound very Norse to me either.

Unless there was a requirement for the entrants to be of Norse or Norwegian descent, then I say congratulations to Miss Viking Fest 2006, Ms. Jasmine Campbell! She looks very pretty and isn’t that what a beauty pageant is all about anyway? I went to the local farm festival last year and I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that the Miss Harford Co Farm Festival Queen and her court have never come close to milking any cows.

My father always told me that my ancestors got around quite a bit. Where do you think the Irish get their red hair from? Vikings had trade dealings with the Middle East, brought order and civil law to the Russians, made settlements in the New World long before Columbus and who knows where else they went. So Jasmine might be a little bit Viking after all. As long as they don’t make her eat Lutefisk, she’ll be OK.

[Restorer]

From the article: "The yearly Poulsbo festival is a celebration of all things Scandinavian."

They're not celebrating piracy.

[Cacique]

How appropriate. The Vikings were the biggest slavers of Europe, mostly selling Slavs (the word slave has it's root in slav) to the Saracens in the East. That's how you find blond blue eyed arabs. It was their main source of revenue, not pillaging, as some would have you believe. The Viking Rus tribe also founded Russia.

[Polybius]

I'll buy it when there is similar support for a blue-eyed blond Swedish-American chosen as Miss Black America. ...........From the article: "The yearly Poulsbo festival is a celebration of all things Scandinavian." They're not celebrating piracy.

The main purpose of the Poulsbo Viking Fest is not to celebrate Vikings or Scandinavians or lutefisk . The main purpose of the Poulsbo Viking Fest is to celebrate Poulsbo, WA, to bring in the local tourists for a wekend and to celebrate the tourist dollars left in Poulsbo.

Poulsbo's tourist gimmick is billing itself as a "Norwegian town" just as Leavenworth's tourist gimmick is billing itself as a "Bavarian town".

If you want to join the Poulsbo Chapter of the Sons of Norway you can be a full-blooded Zulu for all they care. "You do not have to be of Norwegian ancestry, just interested in Scandinavian heritage."

[Drango]

I'll buy it when there is similar support for a blue-eyed blond Swedish-American chosen as Miss Black America.

Who cares what you'll buy. You're not from Poulsbo I bet.

[BenLurkin]

Pretty ladies!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I think it can be justified by stating that Vikings liked beautify women, that she is a beautify woman, which makes her a Viking woman. OK?

(And I don't need some logic chopper coming back at me telling me that my statement suffers from an undistributed middle or a non sequetor, so hack this and propter that!)