Every year for the past several years, a rumor tying slavery to the origins of “Black Friday” surfaces online around Thanksgiving.
It’s unclear when this rumor started, but even History.com has addressed the falsehood:
Most journalists and historians trace back the use of the term to the late 1950s or early 60s, one used by Philadelphia cops in reference to the chaos (“Philadelphia” and “chaos” go together like drunks and police horse punching) that would ensue the Friday after Thanksgiving, when shoppers, Santa enthusiasts, etc. would descend on the retail sections of the city. (A problem that Lord Bezos has helped curb.)
It does not, in any way, relate to slavery in the South.
Happy shopping, capitalist pigs.
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