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A simple act that some never think twice about almost brought a grown man to tears.
Dominique Apollon, 45, wrote a post on Twitter last week about his first time wearing a bandage that actually matched his skin tone. His genuine and emotional reaction to seeing the bandage on his finger made the post go viral.
“It’s taken me 45 trips around the sun, but for the first time in my life I know what it feels like to have a ‘band-aid’ in my own skin tone,” Apollon wrote alongside photos of the bandage on one of his fingers. “You can barely even spot it in the first image. For real I’m holding back tears.”
Apollon told BuzzFeed News that he came across the bandages, called Tru-Colour Bandages, on an online FSA store while he was looking to spend the rest of his Flexible Spending Account funds.
Apollon said that as a black person, he rarely sees products geared towards him — especially bandages, which usually come in a beige color — so he decided to buy a box.
The box sat unopened in his home for about five months before he cut his pinky finger on Friday and finally needed to use one, he said.
Apollon noted on Twitter that he usually doesn’t care whether a bandage matches his skin, but when he saw this particular bandage on his finger, he had “an unexpected flood of emotion.”
“I definitely didn’t expect the complex emotions that would swirl as I watched it just … blend in,” he wrote.
The moment “felt like belonging” and “feeling valued,” he wrote.
But he also admitted the emotion was bittersweet.
“[I also felt] sadness for my younger self and millions of kids of color, esp black kids. Like a reminder of countless spaces where my skin is still not welcomed.”
Apollon’s tweet resonated with many people on Twitter:
And others felt enlightened by his post.
Actor John Boyega, of “Star Wars” fame, even chimed in with his own experiences of using bandages that didn’t match his skin tone.
Apollon told BuzzFeed he’s “Not saying that the industry should be designing bandages with shades that match every skin tone in the human spectrum.”
“The point is in a just society, everyone should feel so valued, so embraced, and seen.”
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