Skin Tone Inclusive BAND-AID®s Are Finally a Thing…100 Years Later

Band-Aids in five skin tones
Band-Aid Brand

One hundred years after Earle Dickson invented the BAND-AID® Brand adhesive bandage, the Johnson & Johnson company has finally expanded its range of skin tones to accommodate complexions beyond white skin.

Taking to Instagram, BAND-AID® Brand announced that it was launching a range of bandages in light, medium, and deep shades of brown and black skin tones. According to CNN, the corporation will also make a $100,000 donation to the Black Lives Matter movement.

View this post on Instagram

We hear you. We see you. We’re listening to you.⁣ ⁣ We stand in solidarity with our Black colleagues, collaborators and community in the fight against racism, violence and injustice. We are committed to taking actions to create tangible change for the Black community.⁣ ⁣ We are committed to launching a range of bandages in light, medium and deep shades of Brown and Black skin tones that embrace the beauty of diverse skin. We are dedicated to inclusivity and providing the best healing solutions, better representing you.⁣ ⁣ In addition, we will be making a donation to @blklivesmatter.⁣ We promise that this is just the first among many steps together in the fight against systemic racism.⁣ ⁣ We can, we must and we will do better.

A post shared by BAND-AID® Brand Bandages (@bandaidbrand) on

Given that it took 100 years, and widespread protesting over racial injustice, BAND-AID®’s “We hear you. We see you. We’re listening to you” message didn’t land too well with customers. 

Thankfully, black-owned businesses including Browndages and Tru-Colour have been producing inclusive bandages from day one.

BAND-AID® Brand’s long-awaited accommodation to its non-white customers was widely regarded to be performative and opportunistic.

 
Words by Isabelle Hore-Thorburn
Weekend Staff Writer

Isabelle is an Australian writer based in Berlin.