Band-Aid Unveils New Racially-Inclusive Skin Tone Line, Literally Puts a Band-Aid on It

It seems as if brands are always in the wings, waiting to pounce on whatever’s trending in popular culture. Unfortunately, that also means tragedies. In response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on Memorial Day, some brands, like Ben & Jerry’s, released powerful statements condoning white supremacy and encouraging people to action. Other brands, like Band-Aid, just want to sell you something.

Yes, the company we’ve all come to rely on to cover our paper cuts, scraped knees, and shaving nicks took to Instagram to announce a new line of bandages in brown and black skin tone colors. See, for the past 100 years, Band-Aid has only offered one shade of bandage: flesh. And by “flesh,” they mean “white skin.”

But in the wake of worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, the brand, like many others desperately trying to avoid bankruptcy, decided it was time to get woke and cater to a whole new market: people of color.

Cover Photo: Band-Aid

 

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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 Jun 10, 2020 at 7:00am PDT

“We hear you. We see you. We’re listening to you,” the brand boasted on Instagram. “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.”

OK, Band-Aid. Forgive us if we don’t give you a standing ovation for finally acknowledging that skin comes in more than one color. Your attempt to diversify is really nothing more than (forgive us again) a Band-Aid on the societal sore that is racism. And there really aren’t enough bandages in the world to cover that up.

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