Black Friday
by Mahahnphotography
Some people put out an empty place setting on Thanksgiving to symbolically honor those in their lives who have either died or cannot be present. Holidays stir up many emotions. Memories don’t always stir up good ones. Life is complex and reflection during the holidays sometimes brings back thoughts that are painful or sad. That empty plate can represent things that we never had or that were taken from us.
While it is known that the first Thanksgiving in America included natives, subsequent Thanksgivings were held in celebration of violence against them. In 1641, the churches declared a day of “thanksgiving” to celebrate the massacre of Pequot Indians in Connecticut. During the feasting that followed, decapitated heads of the victims were kicked through the streets of New York.
Thanksgiving is generally set aside for Christians to give thanks to their God for all He has given them in life. Commercial activity on this day is frowned on and seen as a lack of respect for Christian values. Malls and shopping centers are universally closed. Few businesses want to be branded as anti-Christian. Surprisingly, Walmart is one of the few exceptions.
As easy as it is to villainize Walmart for many things, I have to say I’m impressed by their daring in this regard. Bucking religious sentiment in the USA is risky business. On the other hand, Walmart does carry a full line of Christian books for those looking to buy them on Thanksgiving. Walmart gets away with a lot, but this may change.
Anyone following Facebook will have undoubtedly seen all the anti-Walmart propaganda being flung around in the lead up to Thanksgiving. Apparently, staying open and “forcing” employees to work on Thanksgiving is just too Un-American and Un-Christian to be tolerated. It isn’t just Christians leading the charge though, there are many liberal agnostics involved as well. It’s a little hypocritical to first protest Chic-fil-A for their Christian activism and then protest against Walmart for not respecting a Christian holiday — another form of Christian activism in my opinion.
There are well founded reasons to be against Walmart, its practices and the negative effect it has on our communities, but failing to respect a Christian holiday isn’t one of them. I see Walmart more as a symptom of the failure of American capitalism and not the underlying disease anyway. Watch South Park, Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes for a good take on this (and a good laugh).
Black Friday, an unofficial holiday in the United States, is the biggest shopping day of the year. After giving thanks, Americans are expected to celebrate by buying as much imported Chinese junk as possible in an effort to bolster the US economy. How this works, I don’t know, but it probably does more to increase US personal debt than anything else. At least the practice is a lot more palatable than kicking severed heads down the street.
American retailers generally make the bulk of their profits between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Black Friday was given its name because it is often the first day of the year that retailers start to turn a profit. Before this date, they are operating “in the red.” American companies are not charities. Their sole purpose is to generate profit. If they don’t make it “into the black” by the end of the year, they go out of business. People lose their jobs. Good intentions don’t count for much in a Capitalistic world.
My eleven year old son and I chose to celebrate Black Friday shooting photos together. We shot in the alley behind a local mega-mini-mall. This is the backside of capitalism. We found it a much more beautiful and meaningful way to spend our day together than standing in the frenzied lines of shoppers on the front side. There is nothing beautiful about Capitalism in action.
Mark Hahn Photography 
Mark (hope I can call you by first name? If not it’s okay.)
I checked the pic’s out and can see how you are taking pictures of the “Ether” or the space in between objects. It is real and fills the void, the only problem is getting people to see it for what it is. Remember the old story, can’t see the forest for the trees?
I have seen these “Ether” places myself and might be driving by taking a shortcut or just riding my bike through and something in me stops and looks. I almost always say out loud, “I see you. They may not see you but I feel you there.” What more can I do, because if I am with someone and point it out they have no idea even if I explain. It is almost as if their brain is erasing as I am explaining.
Okay, next-up is the Walmart Thang. I don’t want to cross swords with you but I worked for Walmart for 5 years and it was 4 and a half years too long. Near the end when I was being regularly taken in for interrogation by two bosses I began to try and turn the tables and stared to grill them. They had never experienced an employee questioning them and their practices.
Example: We have you on camera texting and that is against the store policy.
Are you sure?
Yes.
Can I get fired for this?
Yes.
I pointed to a supervisor in the same room who just got a text and began to respond.
Fire him!
I can’t.
Why? He is texting.
I just can’t.
Then as far as I am concerned this dog and pony show is over. I am going back to work.
I walked out and went to my job. I made it a point to say hello as they walked by later.
I could go on for at lest 5 years. The point is the organization is rotten from the core. The only glue is from the employees on the bottom just trying to survive.
Goooooooooooooo Detroit! Or what it used to be.
Rod
Ps It’s cold today
Thanks Rod! Yes, there are very few people that can see what is not immediately obvious. I have my boy and girlfriend who can… so I’m pretty lucky!
Regarding Walmart, I agree with you, that’s why I said, “There are well founded reasons to be against Walmart, its practices and the negative effect it has on our communities…” If you haven’t seen the South Park episode, it’s really funny! 🙂
Beautiful photographs, interesting words. We have no a Thanksgiving Day in Europe but i can understand you, As we have no Walmart where I live but I can imagine the kind of company from what I read and Rod’s comment is selfexplanatory.
It is nice you go out taking photos with your son, my father was doing it when I was young and we had many “contest”, he with his Rolleiflex and me with my SRL 🙂
robert
The empty spaces of your photographs are entirely transformed by the fact that a father and son were standing together behind the camera. Thank you for reclaiming these spaces from their outward dismal isolation. Ironically, the truly isolating places this Black Friday were likely to be found at the store fronts, crammed full of people utterly alone.
I notice in your commentary that you ascribe much of the anti-Walmart sentiment to Christian activism. I don’t follow Facebook’s tides of memes, so perhaps I see the criticisms of Walmart coming from a different direction. The motives that impel Christians to speak out against Walmart’s behavior are those shared with all humans, regardless of religious (non)creed — some sense that workers ought to be able live in community and family within the society where they labor. Rather than a religion-specific protest (even when articulated with reference to Christianity), unease with Walmart stems from common human empathetic revulsion to the ugliness of Capitalism in action.
Michael, I’m glad you could see the reality in these photos. I made some edits to the piece so I think, with respect to Walmart, religion and capitalism, that it is more in line with your thoughts. 🙂
Robert, Thanks for your compliments! Yes, very special times out shooting with my son. I hope he looks back with the fondness that you do for your times with your father.
Best!