By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
November 25, 2011
As the Americanization of all aspects of life in Trinidad and Tobago continues unabated 24-7-365, it is a sine qua non that Trinbagonians be educated/informed in regard to the concept of “Black Friday” via this Afri-centric analysis.
According to long-standing acceptable societal norms , “in the United States, Black Friday refers to the biggest shopping day of the year, which is always the Friday after Thanksgiving” (25 November 2011).
In this regard, one would have thought that with the anomalous election of America’s first African-American/Black President and the UN-designation of 2011 as the “International Year for People of African Descent” that the need to colour any national event would have been already relegated to the ash heap of history.
The fact of the matter is that African-American/Black consumers who shop till they drop on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day only account for 12 per cent of the national population; so, how is that day “Black Friday”?
Moreover, the vast majority of employees in America’s stores/malls on that day are not Black; so, why is this day called “Black Friday”?
In addition, the overwhelming majority of America’s stores/mall owners are not African-American/Black; so, how is this day “Black Friday”?
Indeed, these stores/mall owners reap in massive profits on that day and the colour of the money they accumulate is still green; so how does this day of profit maximization suddenly become “Black Friday”? These business owners do not collect Black money, as in dollars.
For all intents and purposes, therefore, this day should be re-named Green Friday.
And even the stuff, as in snow, on America’s Interstate highways, streets, roads, bridges, etc., on that day is not Black; so, why is this day called “Black Friday”?
Indeed, the crucial questions that immediately comes to the fore are: Is there a White Friday celebrated?; Is there a Yellow Friday celebrated?; Is there a Brown Friday celebrated?; and most importantly, why then is this putative stigma only assigned to the colour Black?
In addition, another troubling situation in which the colour Black is assigned involves the Flight Data Recorder in a plane. Now, when the plane takes off, the original colours of this instrument are orange and yellow. However, not wishing, when the plane crashes, then, this original orange and yellow coloured instrument is suddenly called the “Black Box”. What’s wrong with this picture?
Now is the time in the era of racial inclusiveness for the international community to totally reject the concept of “Black Friday”?
This writer strongly asserts that the concept of “Black Friday” conjures up a modicum of disrespect either by accident or design, especially when a Black man is the President of the United States of America.
On the flip side, why isn’t this day celebrated as “White Friday” when a White man is the President?
Now is the time for the members of the international community, including all Trinbagonians, to regard this day for what it actually is, namely, the Friday after Thanksgiving Day—that’s all it is; nothing more, nothing less. It is a totally colour blind day, period.
Now is the time for one humanity to co-exist. Racial/colour divisiveness is self-destructive and should be avoided/rejected at all cost, ad infinitum.
In the spirit of global harmony, all human beings need to embrace each other as one.
Truth Be Told: The international community, including Trinbagonians, should heed the poignant but apocalyptic admonition of slain African-American Civil Rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as follows:
“Now the judgement of God is upon us and we must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.”
In the final analysis, the election of Barack Obama as America’s first Black President is the overt signal to reject the concept/notion of “Black Friday”.
Shem Hotep (“I go in Peace”).
Dr. Kwame Nantambu is a part-time lecturer at Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies.
The day is Black because its the best and quite probably the last chance for ALL BUSINESSES to end their year in the Black (positive balance) as opposed to in the Red (negative balance). So if we are renaming the colours on a Balance Sheet do you have a suggestion for in the Red; or is the Red man not too offended by the reference?
Dr. Kwame Nantambu – With all respect to you, Sir, your column is misleading. Black Friday has nothing to do with race, but is considered to be the breakeven point (day) for retailers (books) to move into the black, from red (losses); something positive! From this day shoul be profitable. Here again, as always, black is beautiful!
By the way, I did admire your piece on repatriation.
Happy Holidays!
Editors are as much to blame as the writer himself for publishing this crap.
I am thankful this Thanksgiving for the fact that we have Barack Obama as President of the United States -and- as a viable candidate for re-election (as opposed to the sorry sorry set of rivals on the other side). Thank you Mr. President : your heart, your values, and your basic decency are all in the right place. But… your hands are tied. Unfortunately they were tied by us, the electorate…..by not providing you with a Congress that you can work with. Instead, you have a don’t-tax-the-1%-do-nothing Congress that battles you at every turn, while the people suffer. God, they don’t EVEN let you pass your own appointments. It’s not Tea-publican gridlock, it’s Tea-publican sabotage. Heck, it’s Tea-publican TREASON. And then they try to pin the blame on Mr. Obama. These people have no shame…or else its been purchased by those who can afford to do so. Thankfully, Occupy Wall Street is part of an emerging grass-roots evolution…a down-to-to-earth change …a change that will help us to re-elect the President AND to give him a more progressive Congress. Therefore, this Thanksgiving I am thankful and grateful that you are the President Mr. Obama! And I wish you well. You STILL give me hope.
“The fact of the matter is that African-American/Black consumers who shop till they drop on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day only account for 12 per cent of the national population; so, how is that day “Black Friday”?”
The word black or white is not confined to one’s ethnicity. (lol)
Yep Doc , in Big Brother America 41.2 billion as the country faces the worst recession , since the early 20 th Century depression, coupled with massive protest across the country , but who is checking huh?
http://247wallst.com/2009/11/29/american-consumers-spent-41-2-billion-on-black-friday-weekend/
To what I believe is your more important point , in Sweet , Sweet T&T , aka Baby America , what do we have as far as reality ?
Here it is: 1. Massive unemployment. 2.Political distractions of every manner. 3.In fighting for racial / ethnic superiority , as bandit elites in power , laugh all de way to their foreign banks. 4. More useless laws created for folks across already disgruntled , psychologically manipulated , security , and overwhelmed legal officials, to deal with. Some naturally ,in desperation , are resorting to the most despicable actions imaginable to counteract their monsters , but such is the ways of a people , who remains ideological constipated, lost , and confused, where the tribe remains the sole important element.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/business-magazine/Arrest__praedial__larceny-134371073.html
We wish our people well, yes Doc? Keep dem fires burning .
I don’t know what additional point you’re seeing Neal but the Doc is clearly objecting to the day being termed Black Friday.
But the term has nothing to do with the people and everything to do with the color of Ink.
I had this discussion once before; the Eurocentric linguists have derived Negro from the so-called Egyptian hieroglyph for Ink and thus they reason if Ink is Black then the Egyptians must have mean’t the word N(e)hsu to mean the Negroes or Black Men; except the table of nations from which they derive their labels, shows no observable difference in skin-color between the Neksu (Cushites/Nubians/Ethiopians) and the Ruti(Egyptians).
One would think that would force the label-ors to search for an alternative meaning, but God forbid they revise their description/depiction of equatorial Man in contrast to themselves.
If Ink was a valid metaphor for Black why not Nahmit instead of Kamit/Chemit for, as eurocentric scholars claim, the name of the Black soil that described the land of Egypt?
The only person, I know of, who questioned this is the late Cheik Anta Diop, every other Africentric scholar has merely accepted the Eurocentric version.
Ink comes in a great many pigments much more than human skin, and if the Eurocentrist derived the word Kam/Cham from the Hebrew, meaning Charred/Burnt why not use the Hebrew language to arrive at a meaning for Nehsu?
Well to do that, would topple the entire system of White Supremacy, because in Hebrew, that word which they have termed Negro/Black in Egyptian, means Scribe when assigned to people or persons and makes a lot more sense if you’re a logically thinking individual.
They were the first to attain the wisdom of Ink, 1st to put Ink on stone tablet, then papyrus and from papyrus to byblos.
So lets not allow oureslves to get caught up in labels, there’s one humanity despite the purveyors of devide and conquer and that one mass of humanity (Black, Brown, Red, Yellow and White) was on full display at department stores fighting over useless trinkets while some of their brethren can barely put food on their table. While I watch from the safety of my living room and marvel that the majority of them actually think they’re God’s Chosen.