1 Nephi 13:15

Nephi sees in vision that the Gentiles that settled the Americas were white, fair, and beautiful, like his seed before they were destroyed.

What does it mean that the people were white, fair, and beautiful? I had wondered that and so I looked up the cross references to this verse. The first was 2 Nephi 5:21. In this verse, Nephi's brothers and their families are cursed with a skin of blackness. This was because of their iniquity. They had once been white because of their righteousness, which had to have been true at some point because it said that they were once fair, white, and righteous. The next scripture is 4 Nephi 1:10. Here, the people of Nephi had seen Christ. He visited them and taught them the fulfillment of the Law of Moses. The verse says that they waxed strong, multiplied exceedingly fast (which means they were good at math, right? : ) and were exceedingly fair and delightsome. Are we seeing a pattern? Perhaps one more cross-reference. In Mormon 9:6, Moroni calls the unbelievers of Christ to repentance and prayer, so that they may become spotless, pure, fair and white, which only comes by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

As we can see from these scriptures, being fair and white is a state of righteousness perhaps more so than being fair-skinned or beautiful as in pretty people. The Lamanites were not righteous and their skin was black. I think that Moroni puts it best. If you repent, then you are made white and fair and pure before God, and you will be saved at the last day. Let's all do better to repent of the things we've done and become fair, and have that change of heart.