1
Nephi 13:15 [Gentiles] were white and
exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain.
The
"whiteness" of gentiles is also metaphorical. To see this, consider
the question, who are the gentiles in the Book of Mormon? The prophet Mormon gives
us an answer on the title page. As did the Jews, Mormon divides the world into
two: Jews and gentiles. Gentiles are the non-Jews. Black Africans, brown
Hispanics, yellow Vietnamese, black Melanesians,
fair-skinned Scandinavians, or olive-complected Italians are not Jews. Lehi spoke of gentiles in 2 Nephi 1:6: "Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophecy according to the Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come unto this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord." Negro slaves, Vietnamese refugees, Irish potato famine people, Japanese sugar cane laborers, Chinese railroad workers, Haitian boat people, El Salvadorean sanctuary refugees have been brought to this land. And "none come unto this Land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord." In what way, then, are they, the gentiles of 1 Nephi 13:1, "white like unto my people before they were slain"? Black-skinned gentiles, brown-skinned gentiles, yellow-skinned gentiles, and white-skinned (The only white-skinned people are albinos. They can be found as descendants of any racial group. Caucasians may be pinkish, tanned, ruddy, or swarthy, but they are not white-skinned. When Caucasian explorers and slave-traders penetrated Africa, they were referred to as "red-skinned" by the inhabitants.) gentiles are white like unto the Nephites in that they have been brought here by the hand of the Lord to become beautiful, pure, and righteous. (Douglas Campbell, "White" or "Pure": Five Vignettes, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 29, no. 4 [1996]:119-35, here, pp. 133-34; cf. Ethan Sproat, “Skins as Garments in the Book of Mormon: A Textual Exegesis,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 24 [2015]:138-65)