{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.jacky.wtf//essays/2024/on-black-august",
  "description": "Some reflection on how I went about observing Black August, what I'd like to do differently and what I learned.\n",
  "path": "/essays/2024/on-black-august",
  "publishedAt": "2024-09-01T16:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:e2ctbutx6kya6si4if5ngjmm/site.standard.publication/3mniussyp2d2g",
  "tags": [
    "essay",
    "black august"
  ],
  "textContent": "Today's the first day of September, marking the end of [Black August][1] for 2024. The core tenants\nof studying, training, fasting and fighting were held up in _some_ levels of pedigree by me. From\nreading books and papers on the ever-evolving world of prison abolition to maintaining a fitness\ngoal, I'd say that I reached the objectives I had for this month pretty well.\n\nStudying\nIf you've been following along with my week notes, you'll notice that a lot of them for August were\nfocused on the concept of abolition. I completed four books out of the six I hoped to get\nthrough. I was leaning on the fact that I'm unemployed to use the \"extra time\" to read. However,\nthese books commanded my attention and the amount of time I spent looking into the sources to deepen\nthe arguments made and addressed narratives took an additional afternoon for each book. This\nparticular approach to reading, taking a collection of books on a shared topic and focusing on them\nfor a period of time, reminds me _a lot_ of reading assignments from high school. However, those\nwere conventionally limited to a few chapters at a time and didn't have high encouragement for\nthings like examining the notes or appendix of the book &mdash; they focused more on rote\nmemorization and less on opinion and thought formation.\n\nWith that noted, I've contributed a lot of my thoughts and seminal quotes from the books I've read\nto [a list on Bookwyrm][2]. I've added my notes on each book as well as reviewed them on\nBookwyrm with a syndication of that to OpenLibrary, in hopes of getting them bumped up in\nalgorithmic discovery and to simplify my online conversations about them.\n\n<iframe style=\"border-width:0;\" id=\"bookwyrm_list_embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\"\n        title=\"My Black August 2024 Reading List, a list by jacky on BookWyrm\"\n        src=\"http://bookwyrm.social/list/3147/embed/299a7d93cf9149c9b2de18d54e34eef2\">\n</iframe>\n\nTraining\nFalling into the cliche of a nerd, I'm not the brawniest of the brunch. I prefer to run, something\nthat's met me with grace and pain. This month, I managed to hold a six-minute mile for two miles\neach week, a testament to my growing endurance. Ironically, my focus on building the such isn't\n_necessarily_ for combat: it's to remain reliable for things like running interference during\nrallies or extending my stamina when doing community defense or outreach. One of the understated\nparts of being in the vanguard of community work is the _physical exhaustion_ of it all. I'm quite\nproud of myself for this growth and aim to maintain it in the coming years.\n\nI'm fortunate enough to have a fully equipped gym near where I live that I can access whenever I\nwant. This affords me the ease of such training and it comes with no lack of understating that such\nprivileges make a _huge difference_ on one's health.\n\nFasting\nI took this concept of fasting to be quite literal and mirrored a bit of my past in practicing\nRamadan to do so. I didn't eat or drink anything (outside of water) during sunlight. And I kept my\nmeals very plain and simple: plant-based and tailored to support me as I was working out during the\nday. On a cost perspective, I spent no more than USD $50 for the month on food &mdash; given that it was\nmainly beans, potatoes, rice and firm vegetables, it makes sense. I was aware of the cravings that I\nhad clung to and helped me wean off of them. Now, I'm one to cook and bake a lot so it's not to say\nthat I won't indulge myself. But I do aim to practice some restraint as the cost of food, especially\nindulgent ones, are variable and upon reviewing finances from earlier in the year, contribute to\nexcess in spending.\n\nFighting\nThe complications on how fighting imperalism in the United States is a multi-faceted one. It ranges\nfrom the overwhelming fear of white liberals to challenge hegemony, which in turn, has them serve as\na sort of civilian policing force against leftists, progressives and everyone in between. I wrote\nsomething about [the difficulty of being a Black leftist][3] that I've slightly betrayed due to\nthe nature of news dominating public conversation. I'm hoping to stand more firm on this especially\nas I work to change how I engage social networks as a whole. Offline, I've been spending time\nhelping fight isolation of incarcerated people by writing them postcards. It's sad that a few of the\ntimes, I'm not sure if said folks even get the cards; the amount of surveillance and content\nfiltering deployed in Florida's penal systems rival that of an overzealous parental computer system.\n\nAnother fight that I've been continuing before Black August has been around _apathy_. In myself, I\nrefrain from defining myself as a \"single issue\" person as that's a necessary component of hegemony\nmaintenance. In the realm of labor organizing, I've been in more conversation with people on helping\nbroaden the perspectives (when desired) of how labor tie into the broader spectrum of issues. It's\nknown that in the United States, after a joint effort of liberal and conservative waves of deregulation\nof industries led to a lot of folks being booted from unions; on top of existing struggles like\nsexism, racism and xenophobia. However, after attending Labor Notes earlier this year, I was amazed\nto see so many workers of so many different backgrounds activated to fight not just for labor rights\nbut for the rights of the workers across the industry. This is _not_ easy, especially in the United\nStates where individualism and surrendering to the State all forms of action, as it requires folks\nto think beyond themselves.\n\n---\nAll in all, I found this month to be incredibly productive, all things considered and I'm eager to\nmove forward in the fight to free everyone - from prisons, societal hegemony and the routine ills of\ncapitalism and its allies.\n\n[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_August_(commemoration)\n[2]: https://bookwyrm.social/list/3147/s/my-black-august-2024-reading-list\n[3]: /essays/2024/politics-soul/\n[4]: /essays/2024/pulling-from-fedi/\n[book:1]: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL28789327M\n[book:2]: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL32208260M\n[book:3]: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL32028148M\n[book:4]: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL31971379M\n[book:5]: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL48203817M\n[book:6]: https://archive.org/details/blackabolitionis0000quar_w0r3",
  "title": "My Experience Observing Black August"
}