When most people think of Black Friday, they think of hoards of people stampeding into Walmart at ungodly hours of the night in order to fulfill their desires for material goods they do not actually need. While this is true in some cases, generalizing Black Friday as materialistic in nature is harmful.

Why?

Because there are hundreds of thousands of people who need Black Friday in order to buy things which fulfill their needs--and not their wants. There are hundreds of thousands of people who can only afford certain household appliances--like fridges, stoves, ovens, couches, computers, or cell phones--on Black Friday. There are hundreds of thousands of people who can only afford to buy clothes from a department store on Black Friday. There are hundreds of thousands of people who save money all year long in order to buy something on the day it is cheapest.

People should not be shamed for this.

Calling Black Friday commercial and the people who shop on Black Friday materialistic shames those who can only afford to buy goods when the prices are significantly discounted. It also shames people who still cannot afford to buy those same goods when the prices are discounted.

There are definitely people who take advantage of the sales simply because it is fun or because it is easier to obtain luxury goods. People who legitimately need Black Friday to exist should not feel bad because of those people, though.

If you believe Black Friday shoppers are greedy or selfish or the ruin of American culture, you are probably coming from a vantage point of privilege. The truth is, some people need Black Friday, and your moral assessment of those people is unfair and untrue.