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The '''Black Friday hoax''' is historical claim about the origin of the term "[[Black Friday (shopping)|Black Friday]]." The term denotes the Friday after&nbsp;[[Thanksgiving (United States)|Thanksgiving in the United States]], a day that traditionally marks the start of the [[Christmas shopping]] season.<ref name=swilley>{{Cite journal |last=Swilley |first=Esther |last2=Goldsmith |first2=Ronald E. |date=1 January 2013 |title=Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Understanding consumer intentions on two major shopping days |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698912001233 |journal=Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=43–50 |doi=10.1016/j.jretconser.2012.10.003 |issn=0969-6989|access-date=28 November 2023|hdl=2097/15213 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

=="Black Friday"==
{{main|Black Friday (shopping)}}
The  term “Black Friday” was first used in relation to a 19th-century [[financial crisis]]. [[Wall Street]] [[financier]]s [[Jay Gould]] and [[James Fisk (financier)|Jim Fisk]] attempted to [[Cornering the market|corner]] the [[gold]] market and failed after their conspiracy was derailed. On [[Black Friday (1869)|Friday the 24th of September 1869]], the gold market [[Stock market crash|crash]]ed and caused the stock market to suffer losses affecting practically everyone in the nation, many to the point of [[bankruptcy]].<ref name=history>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/news/black-friday-thanksgiving-origins-history |title=What’s the Real History of Black Friday?|last=Pruitt|first=Sarah |orig-date=23 November 2015|date=17 November 2023|website=[[History (American TV network)|History]] |access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref>

The link between the term and retailing begins in 1939, when U.S. president [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] issued a [[presidential proclamation]], subsequently reinforced by an [[act of Congress]], which set the day of [[Thanksgiving (United States)|Thanksgiving]] to be the fourth Thursday in November rather than the last Thursday as it was until then. The change, in effect, lengthened the Christmas shopping season with whose start Thanksgiving had been traditionally tied.<ref name=congressthanks>{{cite web|title=Congress Establishes Thanksgiving|url=https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/thanksgiving/|access-date=28 November 2023|archive-date=1 October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001164706/http://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/thanksgiving/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the 1950s, "Black Friday" became associated with a specific social disturbance, and indirectly with retail finances. The annual [[Army-Navy football game]] was traditionally held in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and was drawing a significant number of visitors. Local retailers began offering significant discounts the day before the game to attract these new potential customers. Philadelphia police began calling the day as "Black Friday" because of the headaches the large crowds caused for them.<ref name=politi>{{cite web |url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/dec/01/facebook-posts/black-friday-did-not-originate-sale-enslaved-peopl/ |title=Black Friday did not originate with the sale of enslaved people |first=Monique|last=Curet|date=1 December 2021|website=[[PolitiFact]]|access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref> As the discounting practice spread, followed by sales' increases, many businesses subsequently started using the term "Black Friday" to denote the day when their accounting logs went "from red ink to black."<ref name=redblack>{{cite web |url=https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/marketintegrity/2015/01/29/in-the-black-or-in-the-red-bottom-line-can-depend-on-performance-measure-used/ |title=In the Black, or in the Red? Bottom Line Can Depend on Performance Measure Used |last=Singh |first=Mohini  |publisher=[[CFA Institute|Chartered Financial Analyst Institute]]|date=29 January 2015|website=CFAInstitute|access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref><ref name=nyt>{{cite news |last=Murphy Marcos|first=Coral|date=21 November 2021 |title=How Black Friday Got Its Name|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/business/how-black-friday-got-its-name.html|url-access=subscription |work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref>

In the late 1980s, the term was re-invented and promoted by retailers to denote the discounts offered to the seasonal shoppers and it spread nationwide across the United States.<ref name=history/> Through the years, discount-offer days using the "Black Friday" moniker were used for additional dates of the year, such as [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]]'s "Black Friday in July" of 2015.<ref name=amazon>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2016/06/29/just-how-good-black-friday-july-sales/86491196/|title=Just how good are Black Friday in July sales?|last=Jespersen|first=Courtney|work=[[USA Today]]|date=29 June 2016|access-date=28 November 2023|archive-date=3 July  2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160703062712/http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2016/06/29/just-how-good-black-friday-july-sales/86491196/|url-status=live}}</ref> Additionally, the use of the term for discount-offer Fridays spread beyond the U.S.<ref name=beyond>{{cite news |last=Bird|first=Joe |date=20 November 2023 |title=Le Black Friday: How An American Tradition Spread Around The World|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonbird1/2023/11/20/le-black-friday-how-an-american-tradition-spread-round-the-world/ |work=[[Forbes]]|access-date=28 November 2023|ref=none}}</ref>

It remains the prevalent use of the term.<ref group=n>Retailers have tried to avoid the "negative" adjective "Black" and tried for "Big Friday" but the name did not catch on. See BBC (2014)</ref>

==The hoax==
In 2018<ref name=hoax2018>{{cite web |url=https://www.facebook.com/Ottoman.Dynasty.Foundation/posts/black-friday-term-comes-from-the-slave-trade-it-was-the-day-after-thanksgiving-w/737552563322175/|title=Black Friday|date=1 December 2019|website=[[Facebook]] |access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref> and again in 2019,<ref name=hoax2019>{{cite web |url=https://archive.today/20211201000219/https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2353417954687560&set=a.560517813977592&type=3&theater|title=True?|date=24 November 2018|website=[[Facebook]]|access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref> [[Facebook]] posts appeared recirculating the claim that the term was originally used for a day "after Thanksgiving" when [[slave trader]]s sold slaves at a discount. One of the posts was accompanied by a "1904 photo" it claimed shows African slaves in America.<ref name=hoax2019/> The photo actually depicts [[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal]] prisoners in [[Wyndham, Western Australia|Wyndham]], [[Australia]] and was taken between 1898 and 1906.<ref name=guardian>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/19/the-legacy-reverberates-how-a-repulsive-image-reminds-us-of-our-ugly-past|title=The legacy reverberates: how a repulsive image reminds us of our ugly past|last=Daley|first=Paul|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=19 June 2019|access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref><ref name=apn>{{cite news |last=Dupuy|first=Béatrice|date=30 November 2019 |title=How Black Friday became associated with sales|url=https://apnews.com/article/archive-fact-checking-8228692974 |publisher=[[Associated Press]]|website=APNews |access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref>

It is one of many "fanciful" claims that have surfaced over time due to the term's distant and convoluted historical provenance<ref name=snopes>{{cite web |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/black-friday-origins/|first=David|last= Mikkelson |date=30 November 2013|title=How Did 'Black Friday' Get Its Name?|website=[[Snopes]]|access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref> but it caught on and remains a [[viral phenomenon]]<ref name=qz>{{cite news |last=Serino|first=Kenichi |date=24 November 2017 |title=Africans obsessed with Black Friday|url=https://qz.com/africa/1137505/black-friday-in-south-africa-the-slavery-meme-thats-driven-a-national-obsession |website=[[Quartz (publication)|Quartz]] |access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref> that regularly appears around the time of the eponymous holiday,<ref name=bbc>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-30241594|title=Black Friday rumours and the truth about how it got its name|last=Butterly|first=Amelia |work=[[BBC]]|date=28 November 2014|access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref> on various [[social media]] platforms, including [[Twitter]].<ref name=apn/>

The claim has been debunked as a [[hoax]] by experts and the media,<ref name=politi/><ref name=nyt/><ref name=guardian/><ref name=apn/><ref name=bbc/> including African online media and fact-checking websites,<ref>{{cite news|date=27 November 2019 |title=No, ‘Black Friday’ did not originate during American slavery|url=https://namibiafactcheck.org.na/report/no-black-friday-did-not-originate-during-american-slavery/|website=Namibia Fact Check |access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=27 November 2018 |title= ‘Black Friday’ did not originate from selling slaves|url=https://pesacheck.org/false-the-term-black-friday-did-not-originate-from-selling-of-slaves-7b85c91ef5ee|website=PesaCheck|access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref> but remains popular.<ref name=ibt>{{cite news|first=Johnlee|last= Varghese|date=30 November 2019 |title=Thanksgiving Fact Check: Who said 'Black Friday' is about selling of slaves?|url=https://www.ibtimes.sg/thanksgiving-fact-check-who-said-black-friday-about-selling-slaves-35098|website=[[International Business Times]]|access-date=28 November 2023}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Cyber Monday]]
* [[Slavery in the United States]]
* [[List of hoaxes]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=n}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Hoaxes| ]]
[[Category:Deception]]
[[Category:Fraud]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:Slavery in the United States]]
[[Category:African-American-related controversies]]