# Does the Bible say blacks are lesser people? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225 "2004-03-09T02:27:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NotSuitableforChildren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac8455/32.png) [@NotSuitableforChildren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotSuitableforChildren)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/1 "2004-03-09T02:27:23Z")
Is it true there is a passage in either the old or new testaments that says black skinned people are made of dirt and mud? I remember seeing it somewhere but am not big on Bible passages. ---
**Author:** ![adirondack\_mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5a626/32.png) [@adirondack\_mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adirondack_mike)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/2 "2004-03-09T02:42:46Z")
We’re all made of dirt and mud. And when we’re finished back to dirt and mud we go. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/3 "2004-03-09T02:44:40Z")
I don’t recall ever seeing any such passage, but it’s entirely possible that I might have missed it. On the other hand, it definitely _does_ state in the Bible that Adam, the first man, was made out of earth (or dirt…mud if it’s wet), so if black-skinned people are also made of dirt, how would that make them inferior (assuming that Adam himself wasn’t black-skinned)? ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/4 "2004-03-09T02:57:17Z")
Adam was made out of earth . . . _“the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen 2:7)_ . . . and will return to earth . . . _“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Gen 3:19)_ The bible doesn’t record Adam’s skin colour, but that’s beside the point. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the entire human race is understood to share Adam’s characteristic of having being formed from earth, and being destined to return to earth. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/5 "2004-03-09T03:29:04Z")
The White Knights of Alabama used to have a web page that took a Bible verse from the Old Testament out of context and used it to “prove” that blacks were “made out of mud”. Sadly, their website is apparently down tonight and I can’t get at it, nor can I remember which Bible verse it was. But I know what the OP is talking about. In answer to your question: “No, there is no Bible passage that says that blacks are ‘made out of mud’.” Quite certain. ---
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/6 "2004-03-09T03:49:31Z")
If you’re referring to the common white supremacist designation of nonwhites as “mud people”, the Christian Identity movement apparently believes that nonwhites were made on the third day of creation and were not given souls. Whites are descended from Abel, while Jews are descended from Cain, who they say was the product of Eve gettin’ it on with the serpent. Far as I can tell, there’s no Biblical justification for this at all, and they’re just pulling it all out of their racially pure, lily-white… well, you know. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/7 "2004-03-09T06:03:34Z")
No, it does not. The closest there is to this in the Bible is that, following Ham’s inappropriate behavior around his father Noah, Ham’s son Canaan is cursed that his descendants will be slaves. And it has long been assumed that Africans are descendants of Ham. However, not only is the racial identification far from certain, slavery does not imply inferiority as people, merely that such treatment would be punishment for a sin. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/8 "2004-03-09T06:35:51Z")
When I was a little boy, we had a little-old-southern-lady for a baby sitter. She told me one day that colored people (as they were called in those days) were descended from Cain. She said the skin color was the “mark of Cain” mentioned in the Bible. I looked it up, and although the account was very strange, it did not seem to lead to skin color. The next time she came, I disagreed with her. It would be really cool if I could say that moment led her to change her mind, or that it led me to become a world-changer. Nah. It didn’t happen. Kill the emotional music. Sorry. It would have been cool. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/9 "2004-03-09T11:49:04Z")
About the cursed descendents of Canaan: (the son of the man who saw Noah being drunk and naked) Genesis 10:15-19 > [@](#): > > Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans scattered and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. Well in Genesis 19, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with a shower of burning sulfur. Exodus 3:8: > [@](#): > > So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey-the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. So many of the cursed descendents lived in the promised land (in the Middle East)… I didn’t think there would be many dark-skinned people around there. Deuteronomy 7:1 > [@](#): > > When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations-the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you- That sums up most of the descendents listed in Genesis. Deuteronomy 20:16-18 > [@](#): > > However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them - the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites - as the LORD your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God. Maybe that’s why there aren’t many black people in the Middle East - Moses’s people killed them (or at least they were told to kill them)… some of the groups that were mentioned in Genesis aren’t mentioned as having being killed… maybe they were the black descendents of the Africans (and other black people). That is a pretty questionable argument though. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/10 "2004-03-09T22:04:06Z")
> [@NotSuitableforChildren](#): > > Is it true there is a passage in either the old or new testaments that says black skinned people are made of dirt and mud? I remember seeing it somewhere but am not big on Bible passages. From what I remember I agree with most others in saying “no”. However (mild hijack), I vaguely remember hearing something like this about the Book of Mormon. Specifically, that after Jesus appeared to the native Americans, they forgot His teachings and were cursed by God with darker skin. Since Jesus _never_ appeared in Africa, people from there were the worst off and thus had the darkest skin of all. Can anyone provide support or debunk this memory of mine? ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/11 "2004-03-09T22:07:17Z")
> [@NotSuitableforChildren](#): > > Is it true there is a passage in either the old or new testaments that says black skinned people are made of dirt and mud? I remember seeing it somewhere but am not big on Bible passages. No. No such passage exists. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/12 "2004-03-09T22:12:30Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > From what I remember I agree with most others in saying “no”. > > However (mild hijack), I vaguely remember hearing something like this about the Book of Mormon. Specifically, that after Jesus appeared to the native Americans, they forgot His teachings and were cursed by God with darker skin. Since Jesus _never_ appeared in Africa, people from there were the worst off and thus had the darkest skin of all. > > Can anyone provide support or debunk this memory of mine? 2 Nephi 5:21-23; Jacob 3:3-9; Mormon 5:15-17; Alma 3:6-10 See also 2 Nephi 30:5-7; 3 Nephi 2:15 And [http://nowscape.com/mormon/negro.htm](http://nowscape.com/mormon/negro.htm) And just for grins 1 Nephi 18:25 You may have to find an 1830 edition of Book of Mormon for the unexpurgated quotes. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/13 "2004-03-10T03:07:46Z")
> [@Dogface](#): > > You may have to find an 1830 edition of Book of Mormon for the unexpurgated quotes. Thanks muchly. It’s great to know things, but better to know references in case you’re called on it. ---
**Author:** ![No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/no_me_ayudes_compadre/32/5224_2.png) [@No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Me_Ayudes_Compadre)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/14 "2004-03-10T04:57:59Z")
I also recall seeing on television, some time in the late 80s or early 90s, a wacky Christian Identity family on a Mort Downey/Sally Jesse/Maury Povich/Connie Stinson type show. They asserted that since the Hebrew name of Adam is related to the word for the color red (adom), it _must_ mean that only the children of God can turn red, and since only white people are physiological capable of blushing, therefore it _must_ mean that only white people are God’s children. Of course, it’s all hooey, not to mention untrue. And it shows that you can turn anything to mean anything, if you really wanna. It was funny when someone asked why Jews could blush if they’re considered not to be good folk. The response was, Well, they’re not really white. The bind moggles. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/15 "2004-03-10T09:27:56Z")
**NotSuitableforChildren** , do you ever bother to come back to these threads you start? ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/16 "2004-03-10T12:07:38Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > When I was a little boy, we had a little-old-southern-lady for a baby sitter. She told me one day that colored people (as they were called in those days) were descended from Cain. She said the skin color was the “mark of Cain” mentioned in the Bible. I looked it up, and although the account was very strange, it did not seem to lead to skin color. I’m always very puzzled by people who think this > [@](#): > > Then the LORD said to him, “Not so! If any one slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him. The mark of Cain seems to be a big “Hands off! Mine! -God” sign… ---
**Author:** ![OneYogini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b9e5f3/32.png) [@OneYogini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneYogini)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/17 "2004-03-10T13:43:11Z")
OMG that link was sad yet hilarious! My favorite excerpt: “In June in 1978, President Kimball spoke with The Heavenly Father, who lives on the planet Kolob.” LMAO!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-say-blacks-are-lesser-people/233225/18 "2004-03-10T14:47:44Z")
Back to the OP - As many have already mentioned, we are **all** supposably made of “dirt” - so of course a White Supremacist might say “Blacks are made of dirt” - it’s kind of like saying “White babies can’t talk before the age of 2” :rolleyes: But there **is** a specific passage in Jeremiah which can well be construed as derogatory towards blacks > [@](#): > > Jeremiah 13:23 - Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. This could be taken only to mean “Some traits are immutable”, but it does sound pretty demeaning to Blacks (and can certainly be taken out of context super-easily by anyone who wishes to do so) Dani