Curse of Blackness

21 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 exceedingly 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.

22 And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.

23 And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done.

2 Nephi 5:21-23

It is not taught in these days that the curse was of dark skin, but more that it was a blindness that came upon the people of the land. But back in the day when the Book of Mormon was translated, that’s exactly what it meant. There have been changes to the headers of the chapters as well.

Verse 23 also makes sense of why Brigham Young taught the following:

Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so. The nations of the earth have transgressed every law that God has given, they have changed the ordinances and broken every covenant made with the fathers, and they are like a hungry man that dreameth that he eateth, and he awaketh and behold he is empty.

Brigham Young, (March 8, 1863.) Journal of Discourses 10:110.

The Book of Mormon is a racist document. Those who teach that the curse was not a skin curse need to read the footnotes and compare the scriptures associated with it. We are taught that the Lamanites were different in color from the Nephites so they would not be desirable. The book talks about how when the Lamanites became righteous, they became white like unto the Nephites. (3 Ne. 2:14–16)

Now you could say that the prophets and apostles of old were simply doing the best that they knew how, you easily could say that. But they could have easily taught against such notions and continued on without such teachings.