Editorial

African Americans, Thanksgiving and Black Friday

By Dr. John E. Warren

Publisher

While the nation celebrates the national holiday of Thanksgiving, we believe that true meaning must never be lost in the commercial quest for the almighty dollar. We salute those among us who will give tirelessly of themselves, their time and their resources to make this Thanksgiving Day and the meals that come with it a blessing for so many. It has often been said that, “When America catches a cold, Black America gets pneumonia.” While we are lending our resources to help those in need, let us not forget our neighbors and especially those who look like us and often have the greatest needs. We must work to make the spirit of Thanksgiving a daily and weekly thing in those churches and organizations that are not already doing so. We must continue to look beyond the “Hallmark Moments” of television ads so that those who don’t have what they see in the commercials, not lose hope. Let’s return, if you have not already, to giving God thanks for what we have and looking for ways to be a blessing to others who have less.

This brings us to “Black Friday.” For the record, African American-owned media, print and electronic, continues to be excluded from the millions of dollars spent by businesses to lure shoppers to “Black Friday.” The fact that we are excluded is not surprising. There are so many other people shopping that some think our dollars will not be missed. What is more offensive is the degree to which African Americans rush to join the madness of this

shopping frenzy without so much as a thought to our own businesses being excluded, with no concern.

So many of us have now arrived at the position “If I have mine, it’s up to you to get yours.” But the next time you are concerned about “fairness” and “equality of treatment” remember that “we” spend over 1 trillion dollars a year in this American economy. That kind of buying power should not be squandered. Let us remember that there are only three things that America respects: Bad publicity, lost profits and a vote cast against its collective interest. We are not making use of the ability to control the profits of those we do business with; we vote far less than 50 percent of our abilities, at least here in California compared to the 90 percent plus African American voter turnout we just saw in the midterm elections in Georgia and Florida; and we fail to make use of publicizing those either overcharging us, disrespecting us in their places of business or seeking to turn the social and civil rights clocks back to the 1950s.

Let’s be thankful for what we have and at the same time let’s remember it is still less than we should have, but we must blame ourselves as we see others come here. We can’t be angry when they succeed at securing the same American dream many of us are still sleeping on.

God bless us to think of others this Thanksgiving and plan ahead to make the everyday such a day.