Sky News contributor Kel Richards provides insights into the origins of the term “Black Friday” as woke activists begin demanding the term be removed for being allegedly racist.

“The expression goes back a long way. At least the sales go back to 1952. Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in every November in America. The day after that was when the big department stores began the pre-Christmas sales,” he said.

“According to the stories, it was the traffic policeman in Philadelphia who dreaded those sales… they started calling it Black Friday because they had a terrible experience trying to control the traffic.

“Black is just being used to mean something that’s difficult and something we’re not happy with. It’s been used that way for a long time. The earliest recorded instance of the expression ‘Black Friday’ was from 1610 – nothing to do with racism.

“It was used by schoolboys… every time they had exams on a Friday, they called it Black Friday.

“We mourn in black for example… it’s not racist, it’s just the way the colour is associated in our culture.”