Social media is a great way to spread information. It’s also a great way to spread false information as people retweet and repost things with doing any fact checking of their own. That seems to be the case in New York Knicks guard, latest mishap as J.R. Smith links ‘Black Friday’ to slavery.
Many African Americans have suggested to each other to not shop on Black Friday in response to the grand jury letting police officer Darren Wilson go, in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Mike Brown. Some people have cited that hitting the nation’s pockets is the way to create change and someone decided to link Black Friday to slavery to make their own point. The graphic quickly spread through social media with many believing what it said, including Smith.
via NYDN:
The Knicks shooting guard made a fool of himself on Instagram Tuesday night by linking the term “Black Friday” with slavery.
“DID YOU KNOW: Black Friday stemmed from slavery? It was the day after Thanksgiving when slave traders would sell slaves for a discount to assist plantation owners with more helpers for the upcoming winter (for cutting and stacking fire wood, winterproofing etc.), hence the name,” read the graphic, complete with an illustration of a slave auction.
In actuality “Black Friday” has nothing to do with slavery and really is a business term. Smith has since deleted the post.
*photos in gallery above*
