What is Ramadan?

Ramadan marks the month when the Holy Quran is said to have been revealed to Prophet Muhammad PBUH by Allah. This is observed by a month-long fast.

Muslims around the world abstain from food and drink for 30 days, including water, during daylight hours (from dawn to dusk), as a means of celebrating and reflecting on their faith.

Fasting at Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam – the fundamental rules that all Muslims follow.

Ramadan is the 9th month in the Islamic Lunar Calendar which consists of 12 months in a year of 354/55 days. In Arabic, this is called the Hijri Calendar and started with the migration of Prophet Muhammed PBUH to Madinah from Makkah 1442 years ago.

Due to the Islamic Calendar being based on the different phases of the moon, each of the months moves back around 10 days each year. So, Ramadan could be in the middle of summer in 2015 and be in December by 2030! This year, Ramadan begins on Monday 12th April and will end on Wednesday 12th May.

If you do not observe the month of Ramadan, you can help Muslim family, friends, coursemates, and colleagues by:

• Trying not to schedule meetings around evening time (dusk) when the fast for the day ends, so they can eat on time.
• Additionally, don’t schedule catch-ups over lunch or dinner, as you will be the only one eating.
• Don’t make a big deal about eating.
• Show your encouragement with kind gestures and words.
• Ask them how you could support them through this month e.g., any adjustments that may need to be made. Everyone’s needs are different, so it’s best to ask individually.

On March 16, 2021, a series of mass shootings occurred in the Atlanta metro area, resulting in the tragic murders of eight people, including six Asian women: Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng, as well as Delaina Ashley Yaun and Paul Andre Michels, and serious injury of Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz. This tragedy follows a surge of anti-Asian hate and violence since the coronavirus first entered the U.S. in 2019, with the majority of reports coming from women.

While there is nothing that can undo the injustice of their murders, we can pay respect to the lives of these individuals by learning the correct pronunciations of their Chinese- and Korean-language names. Respect for a person’s name is respect for their life and identity. The grief from these racist and misogynistic murders is already so complex, and disrespecting them by not learning their names only compounds the violence.

There are many steps that we can and should all be taking to challenge and eliminate hate, racism, and misogyny. Showing respect for an individual’s name is a small step that we can take toward respect, inclusion and anti-racism. This respect should not be exclusive to those whose lives have been lost, but rather we must challenge ourselves to see others’ identities fully every day. As culturally competent ethical leaders we want to express value and humanity and should never do anything that makes someone feel ashamed or embarrassed, or that leads them to distance themselves from their heritage and cultural backgrounds. If we don’t put in the necessary effort to pronounce names correctly, that might be exactly what we are doing.

Learn more about respect and anti-racism related to the pronunciation of names:

• Asian American Journalists Association video pronunciation guide for the Asian victims of the Atlanta shootings
• Oregon Live article: Asian American community leaders urge people to ‘learn our names’ to combat anti-Asian racism
• KUOW’s RadioActive radio news story: The racist practice of mispronouncing names
• Education Week video: Getting Students’ Names Right: Why it Matters

Why did Dr. Seuss stop publishing six children’s book titles?

Theodor Seuss Geisel was an author who published children’s books from the 1920’s – 1980’s. He wrote many inspiring books such as “Oh the places you’ll go” often given as graduation gifts. However, some of Dr. Seuss’s books were riddled with racist imagery. Concerns for these books have been raised for years. Yesterday was Read Across America Day, a day inspiring children to read and famous authors are recognized. After years of pointing out the flaws in his children’s literature, the Dr. Seuss Enterprise acknowledged several titles which “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” Therefore, the following titles will no longer be printed or published including: “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.” However, some argue this is more cancel culture, essentially erasing that these books were once published. The American Library Association opposes literary censorship.  The counter point is that instead of erasing these books as if they never existed, instead move literature like this and others to a different part of the library where conversations can occur about this part of history. Allowing for conversations to occur around social justice without erasing the fact that these impressionable children’s books existed for decades. What will come of these Dr. Seuss titles? Will they never be seen again or will they be moved to the history section of the library?  Consider looking at literature with a different lens.

Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
      Author Abel Meeropol, 1937; First Sung by Billie Holiday, 1939

As Hulu premieres The United States vs. Billie Holiday on February 26, 2021, it’s important to note that the reason why the Federal Bureau of Narcotics used an undercover sting operation to silence her voice. Using her addiction was an easy way for the U.S. government to prevent her from singing Strange Fruit at the end of every performance – the lights would dim, a single spotlight on Ms. Holiday, and waiter service would cease in the club so patrons would solely concentrate on her for a few brief minutes. The government was worried the song would lead to protests and outrage and they succeeded in silencing her for a year and a half while she was incarcerated. Federal authorities refused to reissue her cabaret performer’s license when she was released from prison. The rest of her career was spent performing sold-out concerts in Carnegie Hall.

According to NPR’s The Strange Story of the Man Behind ‘Strange Fruit’, the song was written by Abel Meeropol in 1937 after seeing photographs of a lynching in Indiana. An English teacher, Meeropol was a white Jewish Communist from the Bronx. He was distraught and overwhelmed by what he saw so he wrote the poem and then put it to music and a club owner persuaded Billie to sing it.

Strange Fruit was awarded the “Song of the Century” title by Time magazine in 1999 and is considered to be one of the first civil rights protest songs.

References:
Biography – The Tragic Story Behind Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”
The Guardian – Strange Fruit: the first great protest song
Youtube – Billie Holiday – “Strange Fruit” Live 1959 (Reelin’ in the Years Archives)