Dear Editor,

In the last week, our town of Forks has gone from being known worldwide as a friendly tourist destination in a beautiful area to a racist, unsafe and unwelcoming town. The national media and social media has cast a dark cloud over our town because of an unfortunate event that has happened.

Because I was not part of that event and don’t know all the details the only thing I can say in regards to it is this. I believe it started out with good intentions to protect the town but then unraveled after that and had nothing to do with race. That being said I want to share how my family has felt about Forks while raising our family here.

Most of you will know that we have two African American sons as part of our family of four children. My wife and I said early on as we saw and felt how accepted and loved our kids have been in Forks that we could never feel good about leaving Forks until after Trey was out of school.

All of our kids have been accepted as normal Forks kids just like all the other white, native American, Hispanic, and many other nationalities represented in our town. We have never felt any kind of racial profiling or discrimination towards us or our kids and we feel terrible that the world is now viewing our town like this.

It’s unfair and definitely not true. Is there racism in Forks? Yes, I am sure there is just like every other town in America but we have never felt it in a way that has made us feel concerned for our kids who we love more than anything in the world. If we had, we would have been gone long ago but this is our town and we love its people and the unfortunate events of this last week will not change that for us personally.

We have felt that raising our kids in Forks has given them as good an opportunity or even better than some to be successful and achieve their dreams regardless of skin color. I hope that this letter will help others see through this event and realize Forks is still a great, caring and supportive community and that hasn’t changed.

Scott and Nellie Baysinger Family

Forks