Poulsbo rallies around its royalty after racist e-mails about queen

POULSBO, Kitsap County — Race has so not been an issue for Jasmine Campbell, the newly elected Miss Viking Fest 2006, that she was taken aback when she learned that pageant organizers had received hateful e-mails about her coronation.

"I had friends come up to me after this happened and say, 'Are you even black?' " said Campbell, a 17-year-old senior at North Kitsap High School, who is half-black and half-Hispanic. "Other people were saying they can't believe it's going on. They all said they're going to come to the parade to support me."

Campbell was chosen last month by a panel of judges from outside Kitsap County to represent the town in its annual festival, which runs May 19-21.

Her race became an issue after organizers received a handful of racist e-mails through the festival's Web site, according to festival secretary and parade director Kathi Foresee.

"They said things like, 'How dare you put an African American in there?' " said Foresee. "We didn't know what we had done wrong. It's something our little town has not had to deal with before."

Peggy Campbell, Jasmine's mother, said she was initially concerned and angered. Peggy Campbell is half-Norwegian and half-Swedish; Jasmine was adopted.

"We wondered if this was how people felt," she said. But police told her that the e-mails appeared to have come from people with ties to a white-supremacist group who live outside the area.

"The people who have time to worry about what happens in somebody's else's town must not have very much going on in their lives," she said. "In the end, they are just pathetic, ignorant people."

The town of Poulsbo appears unified in its support of Campbell.

Strangers approach Campbell to congratulate her. Students at Campbell's school have been talking about how to show their support for her and for diversity in general. Local leaders have called for community meetings to discuss the issue. Members of the Sons of Norway Lodge, which celebrates Norwegian culture, are behind her.

"If this gal is the best, she has a right to it," said Lloyd Cleven, a former president of the 900-member fellowship. "Everybody is going to cheer her on."

Mariann Samuelsen, a native of Norway who lives in Poulsbo, said she was saddened by the display of intolerance.

"If you go to Norway, you will see all color people from all over the world who wear their Norwegian outfit with pride, and that is how it should be," she said.

Jim Henry, a member of the Poulsbo City Council and the Sons of Norway, said he initially opposed any acknowledgment of the hate e-mails, but said the response within the city once they became public has been heartening. Henry is black.

"I'm 68, and I've been through this before. I say don't let them get to you. It only feeds them," he said. "But the unintended consequence has been to bring people together. I'm really proud of the people of Poulsbo."

Campbell, a nearly straight-A student who plays basketball, sings in the choir and choreographs dances for her church, was chosen from among a half-dozen candidates based on her grades, her poise and a prepared speech on a subject picked from a hat.

"Jasmine's speech was on lutefisk and she dressed up as a little old lady sitting in a rocking chair," said Foresee. "She had the audience in hysterics and not one person who saw her onstage is surprised that she won."

Campbell, who will attend Olympic College next year and aspires to be on television's "American Idol," said she decided to give a humorous speech after she drew the Norwegian word for a traditional meal of gelatinous fish.

"I decided to do it on lutefisk TV dinners, which sell out every day around here," she said.

Her mother helped her do the research.

"What do you do if you have rats in your house?" said Campbell in a well-rehearsed Norwegian accent. "You throw lutefisk under your porch. In a couple of weeks, you'll be rid of the rats, but you'll have 10 to 12 Norwegians living under your house."

Poulsbo was settled by Norwegian loggers and fisherman in the late 1800s. In 1916, the Sons of Norway opened its doors and the lodge still serves a well-attended traditional Norwegian lunch called Caffe Skua on Wednesdays.

The library has a permanent exhibit called the Scandinavian Collection. And until a few years ago, Norwegian was still spoken in many of the bakeries and shops, said Cleven.

Cleven and his brethren at the lodge said they had only one request of Campbell: that she try lutefisk as a rite of initiation.

Campbell, who said the negative e-mails made her stronger and taught her that there will always be people with something negative to say, said she'd be more than happy to comply.

"I'll eat lutefisk," she said. "I ate a whole pig's tongue at camp to win an Xbox. My breath smelled for two days, but I won."

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com