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Injuries and Deaths on Black Friday, 2008–2018
5
50
46
40

30
20
15
Redefining America
11
10 7
6 5 5 6
3 3 2
1 0 2 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 0
0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Injuries Deaths
This graph illustrates deaths and injuries related to Black Friday from 2008 to 2018. The spike
in 2011 was, according to the website The Hustle, the result of two pepper spray incidents
at Walmarts. They report that the stereotyped explanation for the injuries and fatalities is
the stampede “induced by thousands of over-eager customers waiting at the entrance of a
store . . . but the injuries and deaths are also the result of shootings, stabbings, fist-fights and
drivers falling asleep at the wheel after a long day of shopping.”
How does this chart tap into the same ideas and spin that “Friday Black” puts on the
phenomenon of Black Friday shopping? How does Adjei-Brenyah take it to another
level in his story?

“Asshole!” the wife seethes. Then she stares I imagine how her face will look as I give it to
back at me. her, my heart beats faster.
“PoleFace TM . Pink,” she says, pointing to her At five in the morning, the lull comes. The
child. “Coal SleekPack,” she continues, pointing first wave of shoppers is home, or sleeping, or
to her own face. A new kiddie PoleFace TM , a new dead in various corners of the mall.
coal SleekPack, a Coalmeister. A family set. Our store has three bodies in the bodies
The woman has both the coats she needs section. The first came an hour in. A woman
in a second then storms off, dragging her child climbed the denim wall looking for a second
behind her. pair her size. She was screaming and rocking the
It isn’t always like this. This is the Black wooden cubby wall so hard that the whole thing
Weekend. Other times, if somebody dies, at least almost fell on Duo and everybody in his section.
a clean-up crew comes with a tarp. Last year, the Duo poked her off the wall with his reach. She
Friday Black took 129 people. “Black Friday is a fell on her neck. Another woman snatched the
special case; we are still a hub of customer care and Skinny Stretches from her dead hands. Lance
interpersonal cohesiveness,” mall management came with the pallet jack, his broom, and some
said in a mall-wide memo. As if caring about paper towels.
people is something you can turn on and off. My first break is at 5:30 a.m. On my way to
In the first five hours, I do seven thousand 25 clock out, I walk through denim.
plus. No one has ever sold like that before. Soon “Looks like you’ve had it pretty crazy,” I say
I’ll have a five-hundred-dollar jacket as proof to Duo. There are jeans everywhere. None of
to my mother that I’ll love her forever. When them folded. Bloodstains all over the floor.
56
Copyright © 2021 by Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample chapter.
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