I’m going to talk about something that is going to be very controversial and I know it’s going to be very offensive to a lot of people. And this time it’s not polygamy. This time we’re going to talk about racism in the Book of Mormon. I would like to start out by pointing out that the Nephites and the Lamanites were the same race, they were cousins. From this perspective, it would be something like saying that because the Hatfields and McCoy hated each other and had a big feud, they were racist against each other. I am not sure this works.
What is Racism?
Let’s look up the word racism. I looked up the word racism on Google and their dictionary popped up the following definition:
rac·ism /ˈrāˌsiz(ə)m/
noun
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.-Definition from Oxford Languages (Google)
The Majority or the Minority?
Based on this definition, we have a couple of problems with the idea of the Book of Mormon being racist. Number one, the Nephites were in the minority. There were more Lamanites than there were Nephites; therefore, to say that they were the majority would be factually incorrect or at least incorrect in the narrative. To be fair, this would also hold true for South Africa where a minority of white Europeans held very racist power for far too long. However, the Nephites did not exert power or authority over the Lamanites. They left their cousins alone, only defending themselves when provoked. This is very different than the racism of South Africa.
Different Ethnicity or Culture?
To say that the Lamanites and Nephites were separate communities or institutions, that’s fair, that one actually does make sense. To say that they are a different ethnic group, no. I would say that they had cultural differences, but I don’t know that they are different ethnic groups. And I can’t say that the Nephites marginalized a minority because again, the Lamanites had more land, they were the larger group of people and they were usually the ones making war against the Nephites. Whether you believe that this book is a factual thing that happened or a fictional narrative, either way, this doesn’t fall into lines of the definition of racism.
Our Time or Their Time?
And this is the question, when are we reading the book? Is it taking place in our time or theirs? You have to really take this from an American standpoint and turn this into white slave owners and white supremacists versus black slaves and black freed people who are now marginalized and oppressed due to their race. And that’s not what we see in the Book of Mormon. I think the people that it is too easy to take the words in the Book of Mormon and put an American twist on them to justify our own biases. This can be to attack those that are not white or to attack those who see the Book of Mormon as scripture. Either way, this is taking the book out of context, in my opinion.
Looking at the text in Context
If you take some of the comments that are made in the Book of Mormon and use them against other Americans that are not Caucasians, then yes, those would be racist things to say. However, you would be taking the text out of context. I want to take the sayings in the book and look at them in context. And then I want to look at the Book of Mormon in three different ways with you. I’m literally just opening a PDF version of the Book of Mormon and searching for the word “skin.”
2 Nephi 4:31-36 [5:20-22]
“Wherefore, the word of the Lord was fulfilled which he spake unto me, saying: That inasmuch as they will not hearken unto thy words, they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And behold, they were cut off from his presence. And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceeding fair, and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.” -2 Nephi 4:31-36 RAV, 5:20-22 OPV
Now this is a fact. The Lamanites decided not to follow the Lord, they went a different way. However, it does not say that their skin had become likened to a flint. It said that they had become likened to a flint and this talking about their hearts. And we know that the heart in ancient times, when reading the text as the biblical authors spoke, the heart was basically the mind. The heart is who you are. So if their hearts became as flint, it’s like saying that they hardened their hearts.
What about the “skin of blackness?” Again, this is Nephi talking. He’s saying: “He made them dark skinned so that we could tell each other apart.” Now, we will discuss what actually darkened their skins later, but for now we must understand that that this is an opinion. This is not the word of the Lord here, this is Nephi giving his two cents. He sees them as a vile people that abandoned God and moved away from the true gospel, and now he’s looking for every excuse to point at at them in judgement. And let’s keep in mind, Nephi isn’t perfect.
And then Nephi goes on a couple of verses down to say what the actual cursing is, according to the Lord, in that last verse quoted: that they become an idle people full of mischief and subtlety.
Note that the Lord doesn’t talk about the skin color, Nephi does; therefore, we cannot say for certainty here that the curse was skin color. Were they even darker in skin color? We do not know. All we know at this point is that neither group looked like white Europeans. They are still brothers, Nephi and Laman and Lemuel, and they came from the Middle East, not Europe.
Jacob 2:54-55 RAV, 3:5 OPV
Behold, the Lamanites, your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursings which hath come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandments of the Lord which were given unto our fathers—that they should have save it were one wife; and concubines they should have none; and there should not be whoredoms committed among them.” -Jacob 2:54-55 [3:5]
I want to note that while Jacob says here may not technically fall under racism because they’re not another race, what he is saying is not kind. It is definitely bias, calling them filthy and dirty. While Jacob does talk about this “filthy cursing of skin” here, but how can they be cursed if they’re more righteous? In this particular part of the narrative, he’s talking about how the Nephite men are casting their old wives aside to marry younger women, which is a sin. The Lamanites are more righteous because they love their wives. This idea that the judgment of what we see as skin color is definitely there, Jacob says of the Nephites: “We don’t like these people, they dress different than us, they look different than us, they have a different culture than us; but, they’re not completely wicked, they’re not monsters.” But are they judging the color of their skin or that they are “filthy” because they have rejected the covenant? Here, the Lamanites are more righteous than the Nephites because they love their wives and their families, whereas these Nephite men at this time do not.
And we see throughout the Book of Mormon how the Nephites condemn the Lamanites over and over again yet the Lamanites are more righteous on a number of levels. And I think there’s a lesson here, and it’s not that the Book of Mormon is racist. The lesson is that the people that we condemn are going to still be better than us at some things and in some areas. That’s why diversity is awesome. What the Book of Mormon is doing here is teaching us the importance of diversity and how we can learn from the people that we see as our enemies.
Jacob 2:59-61 RAV, 3:8-9a OPV
A couple of verses down, Jacob says:
“O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins, that their skins will be whiter than yours when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God. Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness; but ye shall remember your own filthiness and remember that their filthiness came because of their fathers.” -Jacob 2:59-61 RAV, 3:8-9 OPV
Can this be literally skin color? This sounds very figurative to me. Regardless of whether this is referring to literal skin color or a figurative skin color is irrelevant because the Lord has commanded us not to revile against them for any reason. The Lord has commanded them, and I’m going to rephrase this into a modern Christian way of putting it, to love their enemies. The Lord taught the Nephites to love their neighbors. That is not racism. This is probably the most anti-racist scripture you can find in the Book of Mormon, reading the text from a modern American perspective.
That said, I’m still not 100% convinced that this is literally talking about skin color. I’m trying not to read this like it was written today about people living today. I’m trying to read this like it’s people that lived two or three thousand years ago that were cousins to each other, and I’m trying to get their perspective. Remember, Jacob was Nephi’s brother, meaning he was Laman and Lemuel’s brother as well. These were still people he grew up with! How did they see things? I have to ask, is this an allegory or is it literal skin? I actually think it could be either or both. And I’m going to get into why as we move forward, the Nephites might be prejudiced against their cousins for being tanner than they are. I’m sure that’s very possible. But I think that this idea of skin color here is taking on a different perspective than our modern view of it just being the color of their skin. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Alma 1:103-105 RAV, 3:5-7 OPV
“Now the heads of the Lamanites were shorn; and they were naked, save it were skin, which was girded about their loins, and also their armor, which was girded about them, and their bows, and their arrows, and their stones, and their slings, etc. And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men.” -Alma 1:103-104 RAV, 3:5-6 OPV
There’s a couple of things to look at here. Apparently when they do battle, when the Lamanites went into battle, they did so naked, except for a skin around their loins. In Isaiah and various other places in the Old Testament, we have this idea that the garments of the wicked are dirty, and a garment can be understood as one’s clothing. The Lamanites’ clothing is a skin about their loins. When the Book of Mormon refers to the dark skin of the Lamanites is it talking about their flesh or that skin that they’re wearing about their loins? Either way, is it symbolic as we read in Isaiah or literal?
I want to read this and say it’s talking about the skin about their loins because that makes more sense from an ancient, Biblical perspective. If they’ve been studying the plates of brass, and we know they have because they quote the plates of brass in the Book of Alma, then they have this idea that clothing on the outside can represent who someone is on the inside. By saying that they have a dark skin, it’s like saying that they have a dark garment, as Isaiah puts it, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). This idea then is that the clothing itself is dark.
The Mark and the Curse
But this really work with the text? If we continue reading in the next verse:
“And their brethren sought to destroy them; therefore, they were cursed; and the Lord God set a mark upon them, yea, upon Laman, and Lemuel, and also the sons of Ishmael, and the Ishmaelitish women. And this was done that their seed might be distinguished from the seed of their brethren, that thereby the Lord God might preserve his people, that they might not mix and believe in incorrect traditions which would prove their destruction.” -Alma 1:105-106 RAV, 3:7-8 OPV
What is this mark? What is this curse?
Skipping ahead:
“Now we will return again to the Amlicites, for they also had a mark set upon them; yea, they set the mark upon themselves, yea, even a mark of red upon their foreheads. Thus the word of God is fulfilled, for these are the words which he said to Nephi: Behold, the Lamanites have I cursed; and I will set a mark upon them, that they and their seed may be separated from thee and thy seed from this time henceforth and forever, except they repent of their wickedness and turn to me, that I may have mercy upon them. And again, I will set a mark upon him that mingleth his seed with thy brethren, that they may be cursed also. And again, I will set a mark upon him that fighteth against thee and thy seed.” -Alma 1:111-115 RAV, 3:13-16 OPV
Let’s look at the evidence we’ve collected so far. We know that they were cursed. We know that Nephi talks about this idea, and Jacob also, that it might be the fact that they have a different skin color, they might be a darker skin color. But it might not be that, because it talks about the heart being like flint, not the skin. And this could be taken from a Jewish perspective where the skin is referring to the skin about their loins and not the skin.
I think we can now reason, because the Amalekites, what happened? They put a mark on their foreheads. The Lamanites shaved their heads, and it sounds like the Amalekites put some sort of mark on their forehead. And the mark they chose to put on themselves appears to be the mark that God gave the Lamanites, yet they’re doing it willingly. Not only this, but the Amalekites, because they were living with the Nephites, they know that this mark identifies them as Lamanites, and therefore as the enemies of the Nephites.
How To Tell them Apart
I don’t think, from my reading of the Book of Mormon, that you can tell a Nephite and a Lamanite apart, except the fact that they dress differently, and one puts a mark on their forehead, and any other cultural differences. The Lamanites and those that side with them shave their head and put a mark on their forehead. That said, I do think if you were to dress a Nephite up in Lamanite clothes and vice versa, it is possible that the Lamanites might be more tan. And why do I say that?
“Their naked skins and their bare heads were exposed to the sharp swords of the Nephites.” -Alma 20:91 RAV, 44:18a OPV
It sounds like the Nephites continued dressing similarly to what they were used to in Jerusalem, whereas the Lamanites have taken on this new manner of clothing where they’re not wearing very much clothes, and this is important to understand. If one is running around with little clothing, and I don’t know where the Book of Mormon took place; regardless, a group of people walk around mostly naked compared to a group of people who are wearing the style of clothes that are typically worn in Israel, in the Middle East. The sun is going to make the skin of one group darker. And a people who may not really understand how this works, and seeing the “skin,” the clothing, as a sign of wickedness, it is not a far leap to see there may have been some confusion between the figurative skin and the literal skin.
This idea that the Nephites saw this as the skin that was their loincloth, their clothes, as an Israelite way of expressing things is correct. And I also can see how, because they are tan, and they’re two different groups of people, and they’re judging each other, they’re may see them as being a different skin color. However, that is with my modern understanding of human bias. The idea of judging people by skin color is a more modern and European idea. We should remember that to Americans, the Irish, Italian, and others were originally not seen as white. The Lehites could have come up with something similar on their own. Likewise, we could put this idea on them, asf a reflection of ourselves rather than of them. We do not know which it is, regardless we need to understand that it is wrong.
Nephites were not White
All of this said, we need to be clear, once again, that the Nephites did not look like white Europeans. If the Nephites were “fair and white,” I don’t know what color I would be because I am very pale in comparison as a Caucasian. Because of this fact, I cannot be “white and delightsome” the same way that Mary the Mother of Jesus would be when Nephi saw her in vision, as I am not from the Middle East (1 Nephi 3:53 [11:13b]). When we read into the narrative this idea that Nephites were white Europeans, it’s proof that we don’t understand the text. To be clear, I am not saying that there is no bias in the Book of Mormon. It was written by human beings, and we are all fallible. There is prejudice and there is bias in the book, just as there is in the Bible and any other holy book. But is there modern racism? This may depend on who wrote the text…
