A racist incident that took place at ShopRite on December 11 has put Croton in the media spotlight with a video segment yesterday on News12 Westchester.
Two local children, Sophia and Oliver Hester, had gone into the store to get a snack while their father, Michael Hester, waited in the car. In an interview with the TV station, Sophia said that a woman approached them and asked, “What are you F—-ing immigrant kids doing here?” The kids rushed to the parking lot to tell their father, who entered the store and confronted the woman.
“She was very dismissive” and did not respond to his questions, Michael Hester said. The incident was reported to Croton police, who so far have not charged anyone.
Yesterday, a group of supporters gathered at the Black Cow as district legislator Emiljana Ulaj presented each of the children with a “Certificate of Merit” from the Westchester County Board of Legislators for their actions. Mayor Brian Pugh was in attendance, as well as friends and family.
Millie Verastegui, the children’s mother, whose LinkedIn page describes her as “the proud daughter of Peruvian immigrants who pioneered their way in Queens, NY,” told News12, “We come from generations of resiliency.”
We will update this story as more information becomes available.
Unfortunately, however, the incident is not entirely surprising. While Croton is dotted with HATE HAS NO HOME HERE signs, there is a non-negligible contingent of residents who harbor both racist and anti-immigrant attitudes. One well-known local blogger keeps up a steady stream of anti-immigrant posts on her site, as well as in a “private” group she maintains, where she routinely refers to housing developments such as Maple Commons—where our Croton neighbors live—and the planned project at Lot A as “slums,” and the affordable housing policies in Croton as fostering a process of “slummification.”
The term “slum” is widely recognized as racist and derogatory in current usage. This blogger has also sometimes referred to Black women as “skanks” in communications with a significant number of people.
Meanwhile, the Facebook group Croton Uncensored, which started off as a free speech alternative to other village Facebook groups that routinely censored expression by members, has degenerated to a large extent into a cesspool of racism. (The site features a running battle of pro- and anti-Trump posts as well.)
While Croton Uncensored has attracted people from far outside Croton, many of the offensive posts are authored by known Croton residents who obviously feel free to express their inner racist on the page. This conduct has clearly been emboldened and encouraged by the frequent unambiguously racist statements of President Donald Trump (whose references to Somali immigrants as “garbage” and rhetoric about “shithole countries” fully hit the mark of racist dehumanization) and Vice-President JD Vance, who very recently declared that “by the grace of God” the United States “always will be a Christian nation.”
If it appears to some that the Chronicle has become increasingly “anti-Trump” in its editorial policy and the Guest Editorials it publishes, that is actually consistent with the duty of journalists—increasingly recognized by most who practice the profession—to defend democracy and not take a neutral stance when it is threatened. This trend in American journalism actually dates back at least to the first Trump administration, and it is a principle the Chronicle follows as well.
At the same time, the clear objective damage that the Trump administration is doing to our country—and the increasingly unhinged behavior of the president himself—becomes more obvious every day. For that reason alone, no one has the luxury of remaining silent about it—least of all journalists on whom communities rely to be well informed.
That said, the Chronicle has been steadfast in its role of giving voice, both in our reporting and in our Guest Editorials, to the wide diversity of viewpoints in the village, as demonstrated by our comprehensive coverage of the free speech debate around Lenny Amicola’s TRUMP IS MY PRESIDENT flag on Grand Street, and our balanced coverage of the debates over housing policy that gave rise to Voice of Croton and fueled its very strong showing in the recent village elections.
In fact, some liberal Democrats in the village have criticized the Chronicle precisely because we have refused to ignore the diverse viewpoints in Croton and tried to report fairly about them; some have even tried to smear this media outlet and make it out to be a right-wing publication.
Thus while we will not be silent about racism and other forms of bigotry, we have invited conservatives in the village again and again to submit Guest Editorials defending Trump and his policies, as well as expressing their views on local issues in the village. Few have taken us up on it, for reasons that we could speculate about but will not for now.
Bottom line: When it comes to racism, we will speak out and amplify the voices of others, such as the brave family featured above, as a key part of our editorial policy. We do have clear biases: They are pro-democracy and anti-bigotry.
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Comments policy: No hate speech or personal attacks, please be polite and respectful at all times.
I am deeply grateful for your openness and integrity, Michael Balter. Your intentions are most honorable and I am so glad you are willing to sustain your efforts on behalf of the Croton community.
Am appalled and saddened to learn of this ugly incident of racist hate targeting young children in our community. I applaud the Chronicle's clear commitment to antiracist values even as it publishes diverse viewpoints left to right in its pages