Racist Hate Mail Against Poulsbo Festival Backfires

KOMO TV ^ | May 9, 2006 | Tracy Vedder

[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!)