Black Friday

It’s 3 a.m. on November 25. Your eyes burn of fatigue and your stomach aches from excessive food consumption. Miles of restless people ready to storm through storefronts wait for hours in the cold outside malls and shopping complexes. Superficially, Black Friday is infamous for its petty fights  and metamorphosis of otherwise normal civilians into savage animals. I had my own experience trying to survive in this wild a few years back. Naive me was eager to find Christmas gifts for the family, yet instead, I experienced a day which exposed a crude element of human nature. The minute I stepped foot into the mall after waiting outside of for over two hours, all havoc broke loose. The warm, friendly strangers I had met in line nearly trampled those who dared to walk too slow. Store employees yelled at shoppers with hateful tones, pointing their fingers like guns. I barely made it out alive–with nothing but a pair of sunglasses that were already on clearance. Nonetheless, this circumstance is miniscule compared to many Black-Friday-induced incidences that have occurred in the past decade.  According to The Inquisitr, there have been seven deaths and 98 injuries attributed to Black Friday violence alone since 2006. If we truly look deep into the purpose of the day, an even bleaker reflection of American society is revealed.  There is something to be said about the sheer and at times, frustrating irony of the day. The beginning of the Holiday shopping season commences just a few hours following the one day Americans set aside for the purpose of giving thanks. It is supposed to be a day of celebration amidst the love and care of family and friends for everything we are graced with in our lives.  But for much of the United States, Thanksgiving Day has become the pre-game for hours of reckless time spent trying to acquire more things–whether it be technology, clothing, appliances, or those shoes you really don’t need but will still get because they are twenty percent off.Overall, the day exhibits the materialistic values that so strongly define society here in the United States. During the days leading up to Thanksgiving–sometimes even months prior, television is rampant with commercials advertising the biggest sales of the season for America’s largest retailers. Many of these companies emphasize that a sale so immense only happens once a year, yet doesn’t the sole day of gratitude happen once a year as well? Which is more important? Though I acknowledge that in several contexts, Black Friday is a mere few hours to catch a good sale or two, there is such a prominent population of shoppers who are so intent on getting the things they want-that the topic cannot be ignored.   Despite the pressure from advertisements and money–hungry retailers, participation in Black Friday ultimately comes down to a question of personal values. Is the attainment of material objects so desired that people are willing to immolate their moral conscience and in extreme cases- the safety of others?So before you set your alarm for some absurdly early time as all of the food kicks in on November 24, take a minute to contemplate: what are my values?