Blackening Our Day of Thanks?

As we all know, Thanksgiving (our epic celebration of food and America) is right around the corner, and with Thanksgiving comes the even more exciting day after: Black Friday. A day that is dedicated to the holiday shopping season and an infinite amount of bargains and deals at every store across America. I know that I personally have woken up at 4 am, still full from my dinner last night, running all over creation trying to hit my favorite shops. As fun as this sounds, there is a definite dark side to the day as well. There have been a handful of tragic deaths due to stampedes into stores and early bird shoppers getting trampled by people so driven to take advantage of the sales.

This afternoon I was google searching the hours that most businesses will be opening Black Friday, and to my astonishment, many businesses have chosen to open ON Thanksgiving Day. According to an article on ABC, for the first time ever Target, Macy's, Best Buy, and Kohls are opening their doors at midnight on Thursday. To read the full article, visit this link.

Obviously, this choice is very controversial to the people of the USA. On one hand, America is an economically and time motivated country. It makes sense that businesses will want to elongate their business hours for more profit. Despite this, some American people feel that this choice is taking away from the sacred holiday of Thanksgiving--a day dedicated to celebrating family and giving thanks for the things we hold dear.

So, what do you think? Is this choice to start Black Friday a day early a justified one? Is it not the more "American" choice? Or is this change one that will take away from our sanctified holiday?

It's All A Gray Area

This past week, my AIS class took an excursion down into the city to explore the extreme separation of different Chicago neighborhoods and also to see the Vision of Communism exhibit on Communist propaganda at the Smart Museum in Hyde Park. The artist that created the unique propaganda was Viktor Koretsky, a man whose artwork concentrated on the emotional link between Soviet citizens and others across the globe struggling for independence (see more information here).

The piece of art that I found most interesting was a picture of a black soldier smiling, holding a gun, smoking a cigarette, with a pile of skulls behind him. He was also adorned with many expensive watches, bracelets, and necklaces. What furthered my interest was the drawing below it--the exact same image with the colors flipped, so the soldier was white but the skulls behind him were black. This image I am describing should be to the right of this text.

These two pictures really got me thinking about the message Koretsky was trying to send about his view on Communism. Automatically, when I think of the contrast between black and white, I jump to the clash between good and evil. Was Koretsky saying that the soldiers fighting for Communism were wicked or pure? Does the jewelry represent corruption or rewards for good intentions? Do the skulls represent those who deserved to die, or were killed unjustly? Or, maybe, is the entire controversy a gray area?