Black Friday - A Historical Perspective

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Just based on the reaction to my holiday rant, I must confess to being guilty of something I try never to do. That would be making a sweeping generalization of an entire a group of people based on the actions of a relatively small percentage. And for that, I am compelled to apologize. I'm usually pretty careful about such things, this time... not so much.

Because intellectually I know that the unruly mobs do not represent the bulk of Black Friday shoppers any more than, say, terrorists represent the majority of Muslims. And as someone for whom I have a lot of respect pointed out, there were probably a lot of people in that Long Island Wal-Mart that simply got in front of more torque than they expected. Or could handle.

I also didn't intend to start the virtual version of a riot with this post, so I'm really hoping for some deep breaths and cool heads here. Getting people's attention by saying controversial things is fine -- I can go for that. But it kinda defeats the purpose if all it does is start a shootin' war. 'Cos y'all know I'm all about peace and shit.

That said, I still won't be venturing out to the mall. But that's true almost any time of year. Because personally I think malls suck. YMMV.

And I still don't understand the motivation behind waiting outside the local Megastore all night, to join in the chaos that will erupt when the doors open. Maybe it's the same thing that motivates people to run with the bulls or swim with the sharks or do any number of other things that make me shake my head and mutter.

Most of all, I still wonder why the marketing geniuses who coined the term "Black Friday" or at least applied it to a shopping frenzy thought I'd find that name appealing. because of my reading and studies over the last couple of years, I connect the term "Black Friday" to the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai. A connection reinforced by the terrorist attacks in that same city just this past week (including the day after Thanksgiving). And someone really smart pointed out that the day after Thanksgiving was called "Black Friday" long before the 2007 Bollywood film about the 1993 bombings came out. Truth is, I'm not sure when the current usage came into vogue, but let's consider for just a moment the historical events referred to by that name.

My old friend Wikipedia yielded up these for consideration:

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September 24 1869 - New York: The Fisk-Gould Scandal, a financial panic in the United States caused by two speculators' efforts to corner the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange.

May 4, 1886 (which was actually a Tuesday, so wtf?) - Chicago: The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket riot or Haymarket massacre) in Chicago.

November 18, 1910 - London: approximately 300 suffragettes campaigned outside the British House of Commons when the Liberal government of Herbert Asquith failed to pass a Conciliation Bill which would allow some women to vote in General Elections for the first time.

January 31, 1919 - Glasgow, Scotland: The Battle of George Square, also known as Bloody Friday, one of the worst riots on the streets of Glasgow, Scotland.

April 15, 1921 - England: The leaders of transport and rail unions announced a decision not to call for strike action in support of the miners. The epithet 'black' derives from a widespread feeling that the decision amounted to a breach of solidarity and a betrayal of the miners.

January 13, 1939 - Victoria, Australia: The Black Friday fires, considered one of the worst natural wildfires in world history, and most certainly the single worst in Australian history.

October 13, 1944 - near Hoogerheide, Belgium: The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) World War II's Battle of the Scheldt in Belgium near Hoogerheide. One company of 90 men was reduced to just four survivors.

February 9, 1945 - Norway: The largest aerial clash over Norway during World War II.

October 5, 1945 - Hollywood: A six month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California.

September 8, 1978 - Tehran, Iran: The shooting of protestors by security forces in Zhaleh (or Jaleh) Square in Tehran, Iran.

April 2 , 1982 - the Falkland Islands: Argentine forces mounted amphibious landings of the Falkland Islands, following the civilian occupation of South Georgia on March 19, before the Falklands War began.

May 31, 1985 - Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario: Forty-one tornadoes were counted including 13 in Ontario. It is the largest and most intense tornado outbreak ever to hit this region.

July 31, 1987 - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: The Edmonton Tornado a devastating tornado ripped through the eastern part of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and parts of neighbouring Strathcona County killing 27 and injuring 300 more.

August 13, 2004 - Malé, Maldives: A crackdown by the Maldivian National Security Service (NSS) (later Maldivian National Defence Force) on a peaceful protest in the capital city. Several people were severely injured as NSS personnel used riot batons and teargas on unarmed civilians.

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Oddly, Wiki doesn't make mention of the '93 Mumbai bombings so perhaps the "Black Friday" label was hung on that event by Bollywood. (It does, however, mention the 1977 choke of the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS. Apparently Philly blew a two-run lead with two outs and nobody on to the Dodgers in Game 3 of the series.)

Put beside all those events, a shopping day seems just a little frivolous to me. But perhaps in light of recent events, the name isn't so very inappropriate after all.

Maybe it's just me.

Yeah, that must be it.

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Bah, Humbug.

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People wonder why I can't seem to get excited about the holidays anymore.

I've been called "Scrooge". "Grinch". And probably much worse. I spend most of Q4 every year trying to keep my head down and get through the end of the year. Co-workers brave enough to deposit greeting cards and holiday treats at my desk know enough to do it when I'm not looking. Festive holiday Muzak is like nails on the chalkboard to me. On the occasions when I am forced to venture into a store, the garish ocular assault that confronts me is about as appealing as a stun grenade. And every time another puke-voiced television announcer regurgitates the line "Makes a great gift!" I understand why Elvis shot his TV.

I detest shopping malls any time of year, but between mid-November and mid-January I think I'd prefer dysentery.

And "getting malled" has begun taking on a very literal meaning now. Why anyone would think I'd voluntarily participate in something called "Black Friday" is a mystery to me. If it sounds more like the name of a terrorist plot than a day of "sport shopping", there's a reason. Unless you've been ignoring the news recently, you've heard about the recent terror attacks in Mumbai, India. Well as bad as this latest violence is, the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai claimed more lives and resulted in more widespread destruction. The 2007 Hindi film chronicling the March 12, 1993 bombings was called -- you guessed it -- Black Friday.

But if I needed a(nother) reason (I didn't) to take a pass on the mayhem that is the Morning After Thanksgiving, shoppers in Long Island have just handed me all the justification I need. In what has to be the most callous example of cold-blooded consumerism ever, the crowd at a Wal-Mart in Long Island trampled a store employee to death and injured several other staffers and shoppers in a stampede to get to the 50" plasma HDTV's and Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum Cleaners. These people give a whole new -- and chillingly literal -- meaning to the phrase "killer prices". I hope it was worth it.

Worse yet, when store management and police attempted to close the store to investigate and recover the wounded, the shoppers refused to vacate the premises because they'd "been in line since yesterday morning!". To that all I have to say is, "And whose fucking fault is that?". There's a part of me that would love to see the NYPD (or whatever law enforcement agency serves Nassau County) track down each and every one of those people and charge them with at least obstructing a police investigation and even felonious assault -- or accessory to manslaughter. It won't happen, because only the people who paid with a credit/debit card could actually be traced, and frankly I doubt the Nassau County jail has that much space in it anyway. But a part of me would still love to see it happen.

What's more likely is that Wal-Mart will make a settlement with the family of the man that was killed, and with those who were injured and nothing will change. The mob scene will continue, and after today or tomorrow the name Jdimytai Damour -- who lost his life under the hooves of this mob -- will slip quietly into history, remembered only by those who knew him well.

What passes for Christmas in this country today doesn't even deserve to be capitalized.

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