The Black Friday hoax is an internet hoax about the origin of the term " Black Friday." The term denotes the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, a day that traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. [1] A post shared on social networks since at least 2013 [2] makes the false claim that the name derives from a day when slave traders sold slaves at a discount. The term actually originates from a 19th century financial crisis.
The hoax claims that the term Black Friday was originally used for "the day after Thanksgiving" when slave traders sold slaves at a discount for the upcoming winter. One of the posts was accompanied by a "1904 photo" claiming to show African slaves in America, [3] but which actually depicts Aboriginal prisoners in Wyndham, Australia from around that time. [4] [5] The image dates from at least 2013, [2] and appeared on Facebook in 2018 [6] and 2019. [3]
It is one of many "fanciful" claims that have surfaced over time due to the term's distant and convoluted historical provenance [2] but it caught on and remains a viral phenomenon [7] that regularly appears around the time of the eponymous holiday, [8] on various social media platforms, including Twitter. [5]
The claim has been debunked as a hoax by experts and the media, [9] [10] [4] [5] [8] including African online media and fact-checking websites, [11] [12] but remains popular. [13]
The term “Black Friday” was first used in relation to a 19th-century financial crisis, [14] and became associated with a specific social disturbance, and indirectly with retail finances. 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. [14] Through the years, discount-offer days using the "Black Friday" moniker were used for additional dates of the year, such as Amazon's "Black Friday in July" of 2015. [15] Additionally, the use of the term for discount-offer Fridays spread beyond the U.S. [16] It remains the prevalent use of the term. [n 1]
The Black Friday hoax is an internet hoax about the origin of the term " Black Friday." The term denotes the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, a day that traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. [1] A post shared on social networks since at least 2013 [2] makes the false claim that the name derives from a day when slave traders sold slaves at a discount. The term actually originates from a 19th century financial crisis.
The hoax claims that the term Black Friday was originally used for "the day after Thanksgiving" when slave traders sold slaves at a discount for the upcoming winter. One of the posts was accompanied by a "1904 photo" claiming to show African slaves in America, [3] but which actually depicts Aboriginal prisoners in Wyndham, Australia from around that time. [4] [5] The image dates from at least 2013, [2] and appeared on Facebook in 2018 [6] and 2019. [3]
It is one of many "fanciful" claims that have surfaced over time due to the term's distant and convoluted historical provenance [2] but it caught on and remains a viral phenomenon [7] that regularly appears around the time of the eponymous holiday, [8] on various social media platforms, including Twitter. [5]
The claim has been debunked as a hoax by experts and the media, [9] [10] [4] [5] [8] including African online media and fact-checking websites, [11] [12] but remains popular. [13]
The term “Black Friday” was first used in relation to a 19th-century financial crisis, [14] and became associated with a specific social disturbance, and indirectly with retail finances. 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. [14] Through the years, discount-offer days using the "Black Friday" moniker were used for additional dates of the year, such as Amazon's "Black Friday in July" of 2015. [15] Additionally, the use of the term for discount-offer Fridays spread beyond the U.S. [16] It remains the prevalent use of the term. [n 1]