I do not support Black Thursday.

I am not a retail worker. I have never experienced the insanity of Black Friday — or its sibling, Black Thursday — from an employee’s point of view. I do, however, hear horror stories from friends and family who have survived: endless reorganizing, crazy customers, and the agony of mandatory ten- to twelve-hour shifts. Now, with stores open on Thursday too, employees must choose between Thanksgiving dinner and their jobs.

There’s something ironic about trampling each other for material goods on a day reserved for gratitude.

Sacrificing a holiday to shop doesn’t appeal to me. Doing so supports a reckless consumerism that I can’t connect with, thanks to my minimalist streak. In college, I realized I had a few favorite outfits but wore the rest once or twice before relegating them to oblivion at the bottom of my drawer. To remedy this, I implemented a new…