The period after Thanksgiving is the official start to "Black Friday", but this was a subtle racial remark about the higher than normal presence of African Americans descending on the street of Philadelphia in an attempt to take advantage of the drastically reduced prices of merchandise offered by retailers. "Black Friday" is aterm coined by the Philadelphia Police Department in the 1960's, "Black Friday" has racial cannotations, correlating Black people with discounted retails specials. During the time that the phrase was coined, in the 1960's, America was going through waves of racial and ethnic violence. African Americans were victims of racism based on compositions they had no control over-- the colour of their skin. As a result of the heavy presence of African American citizens flocking to department stores in downtown Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Police Department came up with the term: "Black Friday" to describe the street of Philadelphia. They insist that the term was a result of the traffic jams caused by the people flocking to the stores. This explanation would be plausible if EVERY single vehicle in the city of Philadephia was the colour black. Moreover, the vehicles in those days did not have clean emissions, nor were they predominantly diesel-fueled, to be emitting plumes of black smoke through their exhaust. There is no other relationship between the colour black, and the traffic-jammed streets that would suggest this terminology is anything but racial. Canada has adopted this controversial terminology and it is offensive to African Canadians, and non-African Canadians alike. We are a sovereign nation, built upon the pillars of democracy which celebrate and protect our diverse citizens. Our government is supposed to ensure the protection of the cultural fabric which it was built upon, and vehemently oppose any form of racism/discrimination. Ban the use of "Black Friday"! America has a history of controversial and subtle racist names for both their constitutions (ex. "Operation Wetback" derogatory term referring to Latino Americans), and in their political campaigns (Republicans referred to Black people as "Welfare Queens" during their campaigns in rural America during the late 50's). We as Canadians do not put up with racial remarks, as subtle as they may be! I am not even of African descent, but am so greatly offended by this subtle racism that I have launched a campaign to raise awareness and get this terminology banned!