Black Friday? It certainly was.

In the madness that is the holiday season in America, one day stands out as the sickest…Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving named because the big businesses offer sales to all of the holiday shoppers in order to get themselves “in the black.” This day used to kickoff the Christmas spending season, has made its mark as the climax of all things gross about American consumerism. To top off the long lines, the 4AM store openings, and the media obsession with this day, we now have another reason to call this Black Friday…the death of a Wal-Mart employee.

At a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY on Long Island, Jdimytai Damour of Jamaica, Queens, died when he was helping open up the store at 5AM Friday morning¹. He was trampled on by a throng of shoppers rushing the store, looking for a deal. Some shoppers were so obsessed with finding their dream TV or $25 vacuum that they were actually upset when the store had to close because of the death of Damour. They weren’t upset because an employee died, they were upset that they had to leave the store². They were upset because they waited a day to shop and wouldn’t be able to get their hands on a “steal”.

This story has disgusted me since I first heard about it yesterday. A hardworking man, comes in to work to help with the holiday rush and dies at the feet of obsessed shoppers. It’s sick, and it makes everything about this day, the day after Thanksgiving, even worse, and more gross.

I would hope that this kind of incident would help bring an end to the American obsession with this day. I certainly will be thinking of this man, rather than shopping, for some time. I know the reality is that the store openings will likely happen earlier next year, and that Thanksgiving itself will one day turn into a designated shopping day where deals will be had. However, the more obsessed our country gets with turning holidays into consumer days, I would hope that it doesn’t get worse in our country than this.

Source(s): ¹ http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-limart1129,0,167903.story • ² http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081129/D94OJ4NG0.html