Bleaching creams still on store shelves

While visiting my sister in small-town Wisconsin where Wal-Mart reigns supreme in retail shopping, I found boxes of bleaching creams only in the section for beauty products for women of color.

Of course, we can go into the racial division of beauty products, but it really touches on the racial consumerism where women with darker pigmentation are told by companies the goal of lighter skin can be reached with the contents inside a little box that costs $5 or less.

Years ago, during my freshwoman year of college, I wrote an essay about black women and the chemical punishments of beauty which included bleaching creams. I guess after I wrote the essay I thought these types of harmful products, which contain dangerous chemicals such as hydroquinone and mercury, magically fell off shelves. 

It's simply devastating to see such products targeting specific women in the aisle of a friendly department store. Beauty should be taking care what you have instead of haphazardly metamorphosing your body.