I have been studying a lot about the many issues and lies within the church and from those so called great leaders. What I am most upset with at this time is the way ole joe turned the shade of skin into a way to keep oppression in others. My family is what you would have once called Lamanites and they are the strongest of the LDS in the whole family my gma and mother are very strong LDS. The church line goes back 6 generations I my uncle who is lamanite is also a patriarch and is a wonderful man. I really just hate that they made my gma who was a beautiful woman feel like the shade of her skin was a curse and that someday she would be a "white girl". She talked about it some, and seemed to loath her skin coloring just makes me angry.

Does your TBM family really cling to this "Lamanite" heritage? I don't know how you could and not wonder why you hadn't yet become "white and delightsome" like your righteous ancestors. I'd say my pasty skin is more of a curse and would consider myself blessed to be a "cursed" lamanite. If your family has any interest in science, history, etc... it would be pretty easy to show them that darker skinned people were found across the Americas thousands of years before Lehi supposedly showed up.

it absolutely floors me that anyone of color would become Mormon or want to celebrate it.

They were born into it My great great gma was found by the missionaries and converted and they were hard core ever since. My gma is now passed but my mother and aunts are still around with there beautiful olive looking skin and that doesn't seem to bother them at least my aunt is the one who brought up the DNA evidence but she is desperately holding on to any faith she can still cling to. I have made up my mind and cant sit through the classes on JS and the BOA but she wants it to be true somehow I think she is just afraid she will have no hope if she decides it is all a sham.

Oh and the reason they overlook not turning white basically is they now buy the different interpretation that they will blossom like a rose or become a great nation yada yada its really sad though. Funny thing is the tribe we belong to has grown so to speak financially because of all the casinos I don't think that's what ole joe or whoever said was thinking lol

I'm so white I can glow in the dark. Sun is not my friend. When I go out in the sun, I get thousands of brown spots all over my body. If I were mormon, I would have to conclude that the sun is evil. Why else would it be causing all those brown spots to leak out?

My husband is German and Dutch. He's very brown. So brown that people speak spanish to him all the time. Everytime we go out to dinner and there's a hispanic server, they speak to him in spanish. I find that quite funny. It gets even better when my never mo son in law is with us. He's pretty fair skinned when he hasn't been in the sun for a while. Nobody speaks spanish to him. He's very fluent in the language because he was raised in a hispanic household with hispanic parents. He will answer the waiters for my husband. This causes great confusion. It's very entertaining to watch. I sit over in the corner glowing, with the exception of my 1000's of brown spots. Nobody ever speaks spanish to me.

Hm, hm. I can relate to that feeling. Sometimes I'll have this seemingly residual self-hatred of my skin color. I'm kinda dark-skinned (being Filipino-Salvadoran)and occasionally I'll think to myself, "Maybe I would've been more attractive if I was born white." I get over it right away, but that Mormon barb on my self-esteem feels pretty stuck in there.

Really? I'e always been attracted to brown skinned men. My daughter is also that way. I don't know why that's our attraction, but it is. We are both married to brown skinned men. My daughters father wasn't brown, so her and I are both very white. It's not that much fun. We burn so fast in the sun. We have to slather on the sun screen to keep from landing in the hospital.

My grandkids will be brown (most likely). If global warming is for real, then their darker skin will be a good thing for them health wise. Not only that, it's pretty.

I think it's because I've always grown up with video games, cartoons, and TV shows with white protagonists. It doesn't bother me on a day-to-day basis, but it does give me a good serving of insecurity.

And that's true. I suppose the greatest benefit of having darker skin is my ability to not get sunburned quite as easily :)

Humans like different colored dogs,
but not different colored people?

Reggie, a dog who knows.

Knight, I am sure you are gorgeous! I have always found mixed-race and Asian people to be among the most beautiful on earth. I can't help but be enchanted with all the magnificent combinations I see when visiting Hawaii. Don't buy into the self-condemnation for something that you can't control and that makes you an individual. Learn to love your looks.

Thanks, noone :) I don't usually hear people say anything like that. I guess learning to love my looks is just another one of those things I need to work on as a human being.

YES! Love your looks. Love your color.
It may come as a surprise (or not) to you that many white people hate their color. If you don't believe me, look at all the white people lying in the sun to get brown skin. Take a stroll through the drug store to look at all the products white people buy to turn their skin brown.

I would love to be the color of my brown husband. He can be in hot weather and not feel like he's going to melt. He an be in tropical sun for hours and not worry about 3rd degree burns. He looks really good in bright colors and white. He has never spent a minute of his life trying to get a tan.

Yes, do it and good luck! You have my best wishes.