fbpx

And Justice For All

By Monica St. Omer

 

Monica St. Omer has been working with me for eight years. She is my right-hand but so much more. She is a wonderful soul who gives unconditionally. In our management meeting a few weeks ago, I asked Monica for her take on the racial tensions in our country today. She gave a very eloquent, poignant and emotional talk to the nine people in the room. We asked her if she could write down her thoughts. I am very proud to be able to share those thoughts with our readers.

—Gary Press, Chairman,
SFBW

 

As I stood watching my husband raise his right hand that May morning in 2019, I couldn’t have been more proud. We were at the immigration office in Oakland Park for his swearing-in ceremony. My husband, a Caribbean native born in St. Lucia, was about to become a legal citizen of the United States. The officials in the room invited all of us to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. With strong voice and hand over my heart, I joined in.

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” At that moment, like my husband, I felt a sense of belonging. I felt proud to be an American.

Two weeks later, a different feeling washed over me, one that people of color in this country know all too well. My husband had just purchased a used truck from a dealership in Miramar, a black and silver Dodge Ram with tinted windows. He couldn’t have been happier. But on the way home, a local police patrol car pulled up behind him and flashed its lights and siren. One of the two officers asked that he step out of the vehicle, without indicating why. They then aggressively pulled him out of the truck and shoved him toward their patrol car.

When my husband asked what was happening—and why—he was met with force. An officer kicked his legs apart, pinned him hard against the patrol car, and forced him to raise his arms, clasp his hands above his head and keep them in that position. While one officer searched my husband, the other stood behind him, firmly applying pressure to one of his clasped hands.

The officers explained that he had been stopped because the window tint on his new truck did not meet the percentage of tint allowed by law. My husband tried to explain that he had bought the used truck as is; the officers shushed him and wouldn’t allow him to speak further. They never searched the truck; the entire confrontation happened at the patrol car. Throughout the incident, the one officer kept squeezing my husband’s raised hand—seemingly daring him to complain about the unnecessary pressure.

Eventually, the two officers issued him a citation for the tinting. My husband filed a complaint with Broward County Sheriff’s Office, and the citation ultimately was dropped.

If you think this is an isolated incident, it’s not. People of color all over the country experience incidents that fall into a variety of uncomfortable and unfathomable categories. Sometimes, it’s overt, like being pulled over by a patrol car no apparent reason. Sometimes, it’s subtle. I’m a citizen of the United States, born in Puerto Rico. But, more than once in my lifetime, I’ve noticed a white woman clutching her purse a little tighter because I’m nearby.

And sometimes, as we saw with George Floyd in Minneapolis and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, it’s deadly.

People of color suffered as slaves for 400 years. When freedom finally was granted, it came with conditions. We did not have the same privileges as whites. We were denied the right to vote, the right to health care, housing, equal opportunity in education and employment. In some parts of this country, blacks weren’t just treated like second-class citizens, they were treated like animals.

Why? Who gave society the right to label us as second-class citizens? Does our blood not run red just like everyone else’s?

Blacks have fought for generations to be heard. Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. Du Bois, Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr. They all fought against social injustice and oppression. Yet here we are—nearly 200 years after Sojourner Truth, born into slavery in New York, escaped with her baby daughter and found freedom—still fighting the same fight. The same battle for equality—and against systemic racism—that continues to divide this nation. And claim the lives of people of color.   

When George Floyd was begging for his life, telling the Minneapolis police officer pinning his neck to the ground that, “I can’t breathe,” I didn’t see George Floyd. I saw my husband. I saw him begging for his life and calling for his mother. The voice of my people never seems to be heard. But if every race, every creed, every color, every leader, every corporation, every business, if they all raise their voices and speak out against injustice instead of remaining silent, perhaps politicians and legislators and officials at every level will have no choice but to listen. And act. The world is watching now. It’s time to stand up and right these wrongs.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty—and, finally—justice for all.

Monica St. Omer
Operations Manager
Lifestyle Media Group

You May Also Like
Innovation Central

“Innovate or die” is the mantra in today’s world of business. This issue offers an array of examples of the innovation percolating throughout the South Florida economy. But, first, let’s

Read More
Up the River

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text] To look at the history of the Miami River, is to look at the history of Miami itself. According to historian

Read More
The resilience of golf

I’ve read more than a few articles in recent years that have made me wonder about the future of golf, which is sometimes stereotyped as a game for stodgy old

Read More
Boat show growth

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text] The Marine Industries Association of South Florida likes to say the economic impact of the Greater Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show

Read More
Other Posts
Affordable housing hits the crisis stage

A couple of weeks ago, the topic of affordable housing came up over lunch. I was appalled at what I learned. In South Florida, it’s become so bad that we

Read More
South Florida is hedge fund heaven

A few months back, I was contacted by April Klimley, a financial writer who had relocated from New York City to Delray Beach. With a background of working for major

Read More
No Time For Complacency

It has been 10 years since Hurricane Wilma wreaked havoc on South Florida. That means there are plenty of newcomers here who haven’t been through a hurricane. Even those of

Read More
New Generation

One of the things that comes with being a business journalist for so long in South Florida is you get to know multiple generations of family businesses. That’s the case

Read More

Drew Limsky

Drew Limsky

Editor-in-Chief

BIOGRAPHY

Drew Limsky joined Lifestyle Media Group in August 2020 as Editor-in-Chief of South Florida Business & Wealth. His first issue of SFBW, October 2020, heralded a reimagined structure, with new content categories and a slew of fresh visual themes. “As sort of a cross between Forbes and Robb Report, with a dash of GQ and Vogue,” Limsky says, “SFBW reflects South Florida’s increasingly sophisticated and dynamic business and cultural landscape.”

Limsky, an avid traveler, swimmer and film buff who holds a law degree and Ph.D. from New York University, likes to say, “I’m a doctor, but I can’t operate—except on your brand.” He wrote his dissertation on the nonfiction work of Joan Didion. Prior to that, Limsky received his B.A. in English, summa cum laude, from Emory University and earned his M.A. in literature at American University in connection with a Masters Scholar Award fellowship.

Limsky came to SFBW at the apex of a storied career in journalism and publishing that includes six previous lead editorial roles, including for some of the world’s best-known brands. He served as global editor-in-chief of Lexus magazine, founding editor-in-chief of custom lifestyle magazines for Cadillac and Holland America Line, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Modern Luxury Interiors South Florida. He also was the executive editor for B2B magazines for Acura and Honda Financial Services, and he served as travel editor for Conde Nast. Magazines under Limsky’s editorship have garnered more than 75 industry awards.

He has also written for many of the country’s top newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, USA Today, Worth, Robb Report, Afar, Time Out New York, National Geographic Traveler, Men’s Journal, Ritz-Carlton, Elite Traveler, Florida Design, Metropolis and Architectural Digest Mexico. His other clients have included Four Seasons, Acqualina Resort & Residences, Yahoo!, American Airlines, Wynn, Douglas Elliman and Corcoran. As an adjunct assistant professor, Limsky has taught journalism, film and creative writing at the City University of New York, Pace University, American University and other colleges.