The classist vilification of Black Friday shoppers

I have no intention of buying anything this Black Friday, solely because I am an incredibly anxious person and have already purchased or arranged to purchase every Christmas gift I am obligated to give this year. I also hate buying items and prefer to give “experiences,” as a millennial who fits [at least some stereotypes]( of the demo, not that it’s anyone’s business. (An avocado costs the same as a bell pepper!) But if you do intend to shop, that’s also nobody else’s business. Whether you’re out there in the thick of it today, or if you’re at home digging into a second or third leftover turkey sammie (God bless!), I suggest dedicating a small amount of your monthly cellular data to [Nadra Nittle’s interview]( with York University media and culture researcher Kenneth Rogers, who has written about the way the media covers Black Friday shoppers in ways that are both classist and racist. Rogers wrote an academic paper on this topic in 2012, about the news coverage of a notorious 2008 stampede at a Walmart in Nassau County, New York, and he compares the way the images were shot and discussed to the way reporters framed the 1992 Los Angeles riots. It’s so good, particularly the part where Rogers dryly points out that George W. Bush told people it was their civic duty to go out and shop after 9/11. —[Kaitlyn Tiffany](, reporter for The Goods For some shoppers, Black Friday is a necessity. Media should stop shaming them. [Black Friday shoppers]( Mohammed Elshamy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images [Black Friday]( is one of the [biggest shopping days]( of the year, and while media coverage of the event often focuses on sales and discounts, crowds — impatient crowds, desperate crowds, violent crowds — have always played a central role as well. In fact, the [name of the event, which dates back to Philadelphia in the 1950s](, is a reference not to businesses getting their ledgers back in the black but to heavy foot traffic. Philly police devised the term to describe the throngs of suburban shoppers who came into the city to shop, as stores traditionally held sales before the Army/Navy football game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, neuroscience researcher Bonnie Taylor-Blake told CNN in 2014. “It was a double whammy,” she said. “Traffic cops were required to work 12-hour shifts, no one could take off and people would flood the sidewalks, parking lots and streets. The cops had to deal with it all and coined the term. ... It became this comical reference to downtown Philadelphia following Thanksgiving.” Though in the intervening years, Black Friday has only become more established, [the event and the consumers who support it have been increasingly criticized]( in recent years. In an age when [the privileged have adopted minimalism](, these holiday shoppers have been called out for embracing American excess. Critics have also questioned their [morals](, with the idea gaining ground that they value “stuff” more than family bonding on Thanksgiving. Since research has found that [low-income people, minorities, and mothers are more likely to take part in Black Friday sales]( than other groups, they bear the brunt of this criticism, a combination of classism, racism, and sexism. A decade ago, when Jdimytai Damour, a Haitian immigrant worker, was fatally [trampled by a mostly African-American crowd during a Walmart Black Friday sale](, the press coverage took on a decidedly racial tinge. The shoppers were described as “out of control” and “savages.” [Kenneth Rogers, the associate dean of research in York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance, and Design](, takes issue with how the press has covered Black Friday shoppers. In his 2012 paper “[Black Friday: Crowdsourcing Communities of Risk](,” he particularly objects to the reporting on the deadly 2008 stampede at the Green Acres Shopping Plaza Walmart in Valley Stream, New York, arguing that coverage of the incident invoked some of the same stereotypes of African Americans as coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots did. What’s more, he says, the press about the stampede ignored the economic factors that drive an influx of customers into stores on Black Friday. I spoke with Rogers about the killing of Damour, the shaming of holiday shoppers generally, and the negative perceptions our society has of crowds. [Read the rest of the story >>]( Working at the mall on Black Friday doesn't have to be a nightmare [Gloria Jean's]( Kaitlyn Tiffany/Vox From 2010 to 2014, I smelled like caramel all the time. Not like I used a caramel-scented body wash or ate a lot of Twix, but like the artificial, amplified smell of bulk-ordered caramel syrup was as much a part of my body as my hair or my skin. It was gross, but it was good. As anyone who has worked in food service can tell you, there are worse things to smell like (I’ve also, at other times, smelled like eggs, burritos, ham, and dishwater). Plus, it reminded me of the thing I loved most in the world: the coffee shop in the food court of the Eastview Mall, off Route 96 in suburban upstate New York. In general, I don’t think the idea of “loving what you do” is very helpful. The sentiment is often used to [con people]( into accepting unfair working conditions, and ties their self-worth too tightly to something that they are first and foremost doing to make money to buy food. But from age 16 to 21, I loved what I did. I loved making coffee. I loved refilling things. I loved faxing orders to vendors for more milk and shitty danishes. I loved complaining to the ladies who worked at J.C. Penney about how the mall was changing, they were putting in too many fancy stores, they were taking out too many hamburger places, and wasn’t it just so ridiculous that the construction on 490 had it down to two lanes? I loved, most of all, working on Black Friday, and I did it five times. Working on Black Friday is, culturally and historically, horrible: Workers are given little [or no choice]( about the shifts they get, which commonly [cut into]( family celebrations; they can be asked to handle extreme spikes [in business]( and [customer stress levels]( without additional resources or compensation; they’re asked to perform the emotional labor of making the holiday season feel special for others, setting aside whatever they [might personally be feeling]( in the midst of a commercial hellstorm. Worst of all, this is framed as an inescapable evil. Macy’s can’t not have [doorbusters](; Walmart can’t not [intrude]( on its employees’ Thanksgiving dinner; Panera can’t keep its [doors closed]( when the mall is flooding with sleep-deprived families whose bodies demand carbohydrates. This is bullshit. On the macro level, Black Friday is a cultural ritual we [collectively, accidentally]( allowed to mutate to this extreme. On the micro level, there are still ways to make working retail on the day more humane, like by giving employees tolerable hours, siding with them in the face of awful customers, and generally treating them like people who deserve to have enjoyable holidays themselves. Like, for example, by doing things the way they were done at a mall food court coffee shop not so long ago. [Read the rest of the story >>]( More good stuff to read today - [Don’t get the allure of Black Friday? A mother-daughter shopping duo explains.]( - [The decline of David’s Bridal says a lot about millennial attitudes toward weddings]( - [Black Friday is longer, and tamer, than ever]( - [Thousands of Toys R Us workers are getting severance, following months of protests]( - [What doomsday preppers are buying this Black Friday]( - [Canned cranberry sauce, explained]( Manage your [email preferences](, or [unsubscribe]( to stop receiving emails from Vox Media. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2018. All rights reserved.