As Thanksgiving slowly inches closer, the accompanying Black Friday is following close behind. Angry pedestrians are rushing to grab deals faster than a charging bull, bucking at the 75% off flatscreens and microwave ovens, Black Friday can turn into a dystopian pit quickly, but just how did this holiday come to be?
Historians have worked to find a reason for this capitalist holiday and one suggestion seems to be the correct explanation. As said by Sarah Pruitt, the term “Black Friday” was first used to describe “the chaos that ensued on the day after Thanksgiving, when hordes of suburban shoppers and tourists flooded into the city…” (Pruitt).
Originally, Black Friday had nothing to do with shopping, but it was later coined because of a profit coloring scheme. Red was used to show loss and black was used to show profit, so after a store was “going red” (no profit), they would discount everything to “go into black” (get profit).
Another theory has come up over the years, but it has no facts to back it up. The theory goes that during the time that slaves were still around, they were discounted the day after Thanksgiving, hence the term “Black Friday”. This caused a boycott of the tradition but was later found to not be true, or at the very least had no real evidence to back it.
Regardless of the history, Black Friday has been the cause of many unfortunate events. One of such was in 2008 when a 34-year-old Walmart employee was trampled to death after opening the doors. Walmart was forced to close for a few hours, but these few hours caused shoppers to get mad because some of them had camped out for multiple days to scrounge for sales (The Guardian).
Beyond this tragic event, Black Friday has brought pepper spray clouded over shoppers, deployed by a police officer, along with a multitude of shootings in and out of the stores. Police have tackled shoppers and car crashes from sleep-deprived fathers. This goes without saying, but we at The Profile encourage you to be safe this holiday season, especially around discounted flatscreens.
