When Nephi describes Mary as exceedingly fair and white it is ready to think he is speaking about skin color. Likewise, when he describes his people after generations of wickedness as dark and loathsome and filthy we can conclude that he is speaking about the color of their skin but in both cases the light and the darkness that he is talking about in this spiritual vision is about the spiritual light that emanates from them or the lack thereof.
Mary was fair and white because of her purity which showed as spiritual light in the vision regardless of her skin color. Similarly, after generations of wickedness and dwindling in unbelief, becoming full of idleness and abomination, the seed of Lehi was dark and loathsome because they had so little spiritual light that even seeing the color of their skin would have been difficult in a vision like this that was projected through the lens of spiritual light.
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