Band-Aids and Bayonets
By ice rivers
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A hundred years ago, the Johnsons stole an idea from one of their employees who had a temporary solution to the problem caused by his wife continuously nicking and burning herself as she prepared meals in the kitchen.
Thus we arrived at the bandaid.
We became adept at covering wounds with bandaids, sometimes figuratively shotgun wounds or the bayonet wounds that we kept inflicting upon one one another as we argued about and tried to cover up our original sin of slavery.
The flesh tone of our band aids matched the color of our Caucasian skin. Perhaps no one would be able to discern the wound, particularly if it was small enough but eventually the gashes became so enormous that no band aid was big enough to cover them. Many people bled to death including those who were most tresspassed against and who had the ignominy of having to wear insufficient band aids that didn't even match the color of their skin. Band aids that matched the color of those armed with the shotguns and the bayonets.
When those folks were wounded, they had to put on a patch of fake flesh that was the color of the folks who were slashing them.
Now, one hundred years later, the Johnsons have come to the rescue, making band aids available in a variey of skin tones so the wounds can be better camouflaged.
Fifteen years ago, the Johnsons first released the multi-textured band aids. The cover-ups were not a success. Apparently the market was satisfied with the Caucasian shade available. The multi- toned band-aids disappeared from the market. Thus, wounds upon the non-caucasian population were immediately apparent. Our band aids couldn't conceal their suffering which apparently worked for everybody.
Now that choice is available, will the blacks still wear white bandages? Will whites wear black bandages? Will we reject the possibilty of choice.
I think that we're ready for choice.
I'm gonna get and wear some dark skin band-aids even when I'm not wounded.
That's the least I can do.
As part of the dwindling majority, I'm good at doing the least I can do.
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Comments
Strong connections made here
Strong connections made here with this everyday item. I never knew about the multi skin color Band-Aids having been on the market fifteen years ago - not sure why it didn't sell then but your comparisons to the wounds and combatants was powerfully written and powerfully moving. We have wounds in our societies that a Band-Aid will not cover and the healing of those wounds are long overdue.
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