Let’s talk about white shirts. Can you tell me what color this good missionary shirt is? White. Now, we went to science class so what’s on the opposite end of the scale? Black. Okay, so if we were to gradually go through that scale and stop in the middle, what color would we have? Gray. Now tell me, what color is this face? Well, if his shirt is white, his face can’t be white because they’re two totally different colors, and so one of them has to be white. You tell me which one. Know which one’s white? Okay, the shirt. Okay, so what color is this face? Tan. As you gradually darken it, what color does it become? If I embarrass him, it becomes red. Yeah, absolutely, but tan brown absolutely. He’s actually just a lighter shade of brown. My kids say, “Well, if there were really black and white people, they would have gray babies.” Okay, and so, as you look at my brother, brother on the right, what color is his skin? All right, so if we’re all shades of browns, that should be a paradigm shift for you. Okay, there are no black and white people; we’re all just different shades of brown. So, if there are no black and white people, how do we start calling each other black and white? Well, we’ve got white shirts and we’ve got brown people. And we’re discussing how that relates to blacks in Mormonism.
And this is a German brother by the name of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, and in 1775, he was graduating from med school and he actually created the whole concept of race. And he gave the coloring scheme: black, white, yellow, red, and brown. The scientific community was so fascinated by his paper, his doctoral dissertation, that they published it. If you look him up, you’ll see that he is noted as the father of scientific anthropology. So, he is the reason we call each other black and white. You’ve been lied to. There are no black and white people. Let’s talk about how skin color actually changes.
All right, so what’s beautiful about the Lord is he put the largest organ outside the body so that it could adapt to its environmental conditions as we moved about the earth that he created for us. How cool is that? So, as you take a look, the orange represents the melanocyte inside the skin. You’re going to have a constant there, which is the melanocortin-1 receptor. It is just sitting there waiting to fuse, and once our temperature changes, something happens. If we’re in hot climates, then the lower command of the body produces the melanin-stimulating hormone. When it fuses with the melanocortin-1 receptor, it produces this eumelanin, which is the darker brown melanin in the skin, represented by the red and black up there, but it’s really brown, the darker brown. And that’s why we tan because this fusion has taken place.
When it’s really cold outside, like when we moved out of the hot African climate and we start moving into Europe and Scandinavia, well, very little sun, our bodies need to synthesize and improve that process of vitamin D. And so, the Lord had to take the natural sunblock down. He did that by causing the body in those conditions to produce the agouti signaling protein. Once the agouti signaling protein fuses with a melanocortin-1 receptor, it produces what’s called the pheomelanin, which is the lighter melanin we have in the skin, bringing it down to keep us alive so we can process vitamin D so that we won’t die. Seems like a loving God.
So, what’s interesting about it is if you look at the skin color map provided by the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, you can see the science and this map actually works out. So, the darker climates are in the hotter places, the darker skin colors. Well, take a look at where Lehi and his family would have been, take a look at where Jesus would have been. So, we really got the Lamanites skin color right; we just didn’t get the Nephites skin color right. Nephites never went to Europe. Okay, so I wanted to just sit here to let that set in for a little bit, and then we’re going to give you some scriptural support for that as we move on.
All right, there’s a black and white person who has ever seen anyone look like that? Okay, so if you haven’t been, which you have to do is something that’s going to be really difficult for you. You have to stop lying. You have to stop using the words of black and white relative to man because there are no black people. Every time you, a covenant people who have covenanted to take the truth forward, every time you use the term black man, white man, “I’m white,” “I’m black,” “He’s black,” “I knew a black guy,” “You know, all my family is white,” “I don’t know why I’m so black,” I don’t care what it is, every time you use those terms, you’re lying. You’re putting a brick of deception on a wall that makes people believe that there’s actually something different. All in the human family are alike 99.99% of like. We’re all shades of brown, and every time you see someone with a different complexion, it should make you smile, saying the Lord loved us so much that he put the largest organ on the outside of the body so it would adapt as we moved about the earth. It is one of the greatest signs of the Lord’s love for us, so we have to stop using those terms. And as we stop, we can share that message with the world and get them to stop as well. And guess what? You see the walls start coming down. Black and white are walls that divide us. There is no difference, especially between “white Mormons” and “black Mormons”. There’s a picture of the human family and its glory. Isn’t that beautiful?
By Todd Noall, Source Expert
Todd Noall is an author and religious scholar at Mormonism Explained with a focus on the history and theology of religion.
Fact Checked by Mr. Kevin Prince, Source Expert
Kevin Prince is a religious scholar and host of the Gospel Learning Youtube channel. His channel has garnered over 41,000 subscribers and accumulated over 4.5 million views. Mr. Prince also created the Gospel Learning App, a reliable platform where individuals seeking truth can access trustworthy answers to religious questions from top educators worldwide.
About Mormonism Explained
Mormonism Explained is a resource that was designed to provide objective and factual information about Mormonism, its history, doctrines, and policies. Our team of researchers consults experts and primary sources to present factual information on a variety of topics relevant to the Mormon Church.
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