Thanksgiving is a popular holiday in the United States in which Americans rejoice with friends and family over a large dinner, all the while recollecting the moments and people they are most grateful for in life. What people are thankful for usually varies from person to person, but what’s clear is that when we express our gratitude, most people don’t recite their shopping lists. They appreciate well-spent time with family, friends, and their lives in general. They remember that materialistic possessions are not the most important things in life… until the next day.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, and it completely throws all morality associated with Thanksgiving away. Even the leftovers last longer than these feelings of gratitude. Stores blast ads for sales everywhere, as the holiday shopping season starts, causing everyone’s thirst for consumption to grow. Stores are crowded with mobs all trying to get to the same “must have” products of the season. Fighting commonly happens on Black Friday, especially when products are bought out fast, if you manage to not get trampled to death by the crowds rushing into stores.
So how bad does it get? Well, there are estimated records of injuries and deaths from Black Friday, with 12 reported deaths and 117 injuries since 2006. Numbers of injuries and deaths from Black Friday vary, as most of the time it’s too chaotic to monitor and record the injuries and deaths of shoppers everywhere in the country. The cause of most recorded deaths was trampling and stampeding, which is responsible for one third of deaths and injuries. Keep in mind, those stampeding were the same people who were “grateful” for non materialistic possessions just hours before.
This is especially true here on Long Island where the first recorded fatality of Black Friday happened. According to The Guardian, the 34 year old Walmart employee that died on Black Friday was trying to secure the crowd around him and his other co-workers when he was tripped by the incoming mob trampled over. The other employees that tried to rescue him were also stampeded, one of which being a 28 year old pregnant woman. Witnesses of the crowd on that day described the herd as “savages.”
The deaths and injuries of many innocent people were caused solely from the greed of those who participated in Black Friday, when just the day prior was all about not having greed, and being thankful for what you have. This hard contrast between these two days sets up a question about the people who participate in both of these events: Are we truly thankful for what we have?
