"I didn't really even know what I'd been missing. That's how racism often operates," Dominique Apollon told InsideEdition.com.
Some people shed tears after getting a cut but it was the bandage used to wrap up the wound that led to an emotional moment for this 45-year-old man.
Dominique Apollon, of Oakland, California, shared pictures on Twitter of the moment he put on a brown bandage and it matched his skin tone perfectly.
“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. “You can barely spot it in the first image. For real I’m holding back tears.”
He told InsideEdition.com that, growing up, he always used beige bandages without giving it much though. Those bandages were marketed toward people with lighter skin.
"As an adult it was just one of those things that you basically resign yourself accepting," he said.
Apollon was looking for ways to spend the rest of his Flexible Spending Account last December when he came across the Tru-Color Bandages, and decided to make the purchase to support a Black-owned business.
The bandages stayed in his drawers for months until he used one last week.
“When I saw the way it happened to perfectly blend with my skin tone, it just felt beautiful. I just felt valued. Seen. Appreciated. And people of color are not used to feeling consciously considered and appreciated,” he said. “It just really took me aback because I didn’t expect to be so moved emotionally.”
Apollon said he also felt a “profound sadness” when he saw how the bandage looked on his skin.
“This is about way more than a Band-aid," Apollon said. “I didn’t really even know what I’d been missing. That’s how racism often operates. It’s not always an explicit, overt thing."
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