SWAMPSCOTT — Demonstrators gathered in the rain outside Vinnin Square’s Santander Bank Saturday to protest what they say was a racially-motivated incident perpetrated against three Black families late last month.
On the evening of July 28, friends Ebony White, Starr High, and Shawana Satterwhite, along with their five young children, had just enjoyed a late-night dessert at Cookie Monstah and were walking back to their cars when they say a woman in a white Ford Escape sped through the Vinnin Square parking lot, veering dangerously close to the mothers and their families.
“As we were walking across, we noticed a car coming from the back of the parking lot, (near the vicinity of Santander Bank),” Satterwhite said. “It came towards us, but she wasn’t slowing down at all. For a parking lot, she was going pretty fast, and she was going right towards our kids.”
One of the friends stepped in front of the vehicle, while another asked the woman, who was white, to slow down.
It was then, the mothers allege, that the woman rolled down her window and unleashed a barrage of racial insults at them, including several slurs, as she continued to speed through the lot.
“She called us all types of names, said we needed to go back to where we came from,” White said. “Then she stopped and opened her car up and was still saying stuff as we had our kids there.”
A video of the altercation, taken by Satterwhite, shows the woman leaving the parking lot as she yells at the parties to “call the police.”
“This lady was just sitting there like she enjoyed it,” High said. “At that point, my anger went out the window. All I could feel was the emotion … for our kids.”
The three women, all from Lynn, said they contacted Swampscott police roughly 15 minutes later. A report was filed, and the women were soon put in touch with a detective as part of an ongoing investigation.
“We chose this location because it was close to where the incident happened,” White said of Saturday’s protest.
Protest co-organizer Anthony Coleman, a longtime friend of the women, said he was compelled to put together a demonstration as a way to show solidarity with the families.
He said he was especially concerned for the five children, whose mothers’ say were visibly shaken by the altercation.
“The next generation is having to endure this type of crap,” Coleman said. “This woman was calling them all kinds of racial slurs in front of their children, so the children are being exposed to this garbage as well.”
High later added: “My daughter is five, and she was like, ‘the white woman doesn’t like (us).’ … I don’t want my daughter to know (color). White, black, we’re all together.”
As they noted the presence of more than two dozen friends and strangers during Saturday’s demonstration, the women said they were grateful for the amount of community support they’ve received since the incident.
“Her ignorance that day, it brought our community back together,” Satterwhite said. “It’s just unfortunate it was so close to home.”
