Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, is one of the most important holidays on the Islamic calendar.  And in recent years during Eid celebrations, as Twitter and Instagram have become portals into our day-to-day experiences, the hashtag #BlackOutEid has trended across social platforms in response to the erasure of Black Muslims.  People began to note how apps like Snapchat, which offered filters to honor the Islamic faith during the holy month, excluded fuller representations of practicing Muslims. # BlackOutEid started not just as a way to showcase the range of Eid dress as a counter to invisibility, but to highlight the diversity of experiences — images of Black Muslims proudly adorned in bright fabrics, traditional dress, and others with their own unique twist, flooded timelines. 



Often, it can feel like there is a demand for Black Muslims to segment ourselves into nonexistence.  The pervasiveness of black culture in American media, combined with preexisting anti-blackness, has manifested itself in American-Muslim communities through the over-policing of black citizens.  Clothing became a distinctive marker of blackness and faced backlash; such as hijabs styled like turbans on Black Muslim women being labeled “haram” by non-Black Muslims, while YouTubers profited off the “turbanista” trend. 



Masquerading under a falsely homogenous religious appeal, it’s the old, “We’re all Muslim.  Allah doesn’t care about race.”  But the world we inhabit does, and there is nothing unholy about pushing back against colorblind narratives and recognizing our realities.  During a holiday where we are called on to wear our best, #BlackOutEid became an important space to reclaim expression. 

Below, five Black Muslims explain their thoughts on Eid, cultural dress, and black identity.  They come from different backgrounds, diasporas, and histories, but share in common a reality that black feminist poet Audre Lorde perfectly captured years ago: “There’s always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself — whether it’s Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. —  because that's the piece that they need to key in to.  They want to dismiss everything else.”