TORONTO -- Band-Aids will now be available in a range of skin colours.

Johnson & Johnson announced on Instagram that it will launch a range of bandages in “light, medium and deep shades of Brown and Black skin tones that embrace the beauty of diverse skin.”

The company also said it would be making a donation to Black Lives Matter as a first step in the fight against systemic racism.

The move comes 99 years into the history of Band-Aid and amid protests around the world sparked by the death of George Floyd during an arrest by police in Minneapolis and other recent incidents of violence and injustice against Black people.

“We stand in solidarity with our Black colleagues, collaborators and community in the fight against racism, violence and injustice,” Johnson & Johnson posted under its Bandaidbrand account. “We are committed to taking actions to create tangible change for the Black community.”

The company did not say when the products would be available. CTVNews.ca has reached out to Johnson & Johnson’s Canadian headquarters to see if they will be sold here but has not yet had a response.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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

One person who set up an online petition in 2015 asking Band-Aid to diversify its range said they had never thought about the colour of Band-Aids until a friend asked: "Do you think that it is a sign of a deeper societal problem that Band-Aid's 'flesh' colour defaults to Caucasian?"

https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/band-aids-for-all.html

Some commented on social media that the company’s move comes too late. Several pointed out that there are already companies providing bandages in diverse shades, including the Black-owned Browndages, and Tru-Colour, which was launched by an adoptive dad who wanted products for his son.

Last year, a series of emotional tweets by a Black man who used a bandage that matched his skin tone for the first time racked up more than 650,000 reactions on Twitter.

“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,” Dominique Apollon tweeted. He posted photos of his bandaged finger.

“You can barely even spot it in the first image. For real I’m holding back tears,” Apollon wrote. He said that the seemingly trivial action he’d taken since childhood was “self-administered #antiblackness” and that finding a bandage that matched his skin made him feel “valued.”