Dominique Apollon went on Twitter to share the emotional experience he went through when he used a bandage that actually matched his skin tone for the first time.
He was shocked by how much the experience affected him. He said he was holding back tears during the experience.
Dominique spoke about the event that led to the viral tweet that has been shared by over half a million people already
He told Buzzfeed in an interview:
“As a black person, I’m not used to seeing products geared to me in national online retailers.”
He’s not the only one who has been surprised to find products that are geared towards them.
A bandage in the wrong tone
People responded to his tweet with stories of their own.
Dolls, makeup, pantyhose, the ‘flesh’ crayon color, and other products were brought up as people discussed both the confusion and cultural ostracization they had first felt as a child when it came to using products that never matched their own skin tone.
It can be a disconcerting experience.
@AuRevoir3179 tweeted a response discussing it:
“This was one of the first things that made me aware of “race” when I was a kid. I remember asking my mom about the bandaid color…Also the “flesh” crayon.”
John Boyega, the actor who plays Finn in Star Wars, talked about how standard bandages that don’t match can be a pain in the movie world as well:
When it’s a match
Dominique kept revisiting his original post. He needed to talk more about what the experience had been like:
“Not like I didn’t know these strips existed. But I definitely didn’t expect the complex emotions that would swirl as I watched it just … blend in. A seemingly trivial exercise I’ve repeated 1000x on my body with ‘regular’ ones since childhood. Self-administered #antiblackness”
It has been an emotional experience for him to finally have a product that matches after so many decades of just accepting that a bandage sold in major stores was never going to be the right match.
Finally, for a change
For a long time, items sold as ‘flesh tone’ in stores have been almost invariably beige. It can leave a person feeling invisible when nothing is geared towards them as if their shopping experience – or experience in life – isn’t important enough to get the attention of retailers and manufacturers.
While many brands have been working on widening the product options and tones available when it comes to makeup and dolls, there are still areas in which they have fallen short, even now.
Thankfully, bandages will no longer be on the list. There is an answer that has finally been made available nationwide.
Tru-Colour bandages are now available at Target and on Amazon. For a change, a large retailer has bandages available for olive through dark brown skin tones.
They offer more information on their website:
“Tru-Colour Bandages skin tone shades are based on the Fitzpatrick Scale. We currently provide 3 skin tone shades with specific color packaging assigned to each shade.”
It’s a beautiful thing to see on the shelf in a sea of standard beige bandages.
Who knew that something as simple as a bandage to cover a scratch could have such a profound effect?
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