Only one day left until the notorious Black Friday gives us consumers sales we only dream of. News reporters are already on line before anyone else, and normally I could careless. Usually Black Friday just means Buy Nothing Day to me, but I had a change of heart this year. It is not I've become a frantic shopper, or I enjoy supporting big evil corporations but I find the idea of Buy Nothing Day a bit useless. The only people I know who shout to buy nothing, turn off your tv, go outside and etc. are of the intellectual, sociopolitical kind. Those masses are nothing compared to the working class who could careless on what they have to say.
Trying to convince my Latina mom to not buy anything on Black Friday is like trying to win any argument with her -- pointless. For example last night she couldn't stop complaining that I spent 15 dollars on Thai food. All I heard from her for the next half hour was how she would have gone to McDonalds and spent less or have gone out to eat at Olive Garden of course saying all this under her breath. Point is, there's nothing to change my mother's mind on saving money. Black Friday is somewhat of an assistant to the working class, and protesting to buy nothing is too idealistic, too radical for them. Although I do agree that we as a society should consume less, simply ignoring corporations and capitalism altogether in one day does not solve anything. I believe there are other alternatives that really need to be set in place instead.
Awareness for consumer to shop their local independent stores is one. The few records stores here in South Florida are having sales on Friday. Another thought is setting up workshops for people to create simple and fast gifts instead of buying gifts. These are ideas that need to be discussed, not just to buy nothing. We're long ways until us as a society begin to be more aware of where we buy our needs and how our consumer monies are actually being used/who it supports but I do believe as discussions arise, there will be solutions
