As you all know, the people who are called ‘black’ today are not jet black per
say. Just like not all the classical Arabs of the past were jet black. They had
variations in their dark skinned shades, like the so-called "black" people
today have variations of dark skinned shades or hues.
The original Arabs who were described as Adam or shadeed al udma or black
or green or yellow (asfar) were very black-skinned and it was a normal Colour
amongst them.
If the Arabs saw a person who was light-skinned, they took him for a non-Arab.
This is why the Arabs would describe a light-skinned person as "red (ahmar) as
if he is one of the slaves.
They would say this because the people who had that complexion were the
slaves from Roman, Greece, and Persia, etc.
You can observe this fact in the Hollywood movie Gladiator starring Russel
Crowe who was known as ‘Spaniard’. The depiction of the slaves was correct
but the Caucasian actors playing the part of Arabs was wrong.
Although there are many people who seem to think that only blacks were
slaves in North Africa and the Middle East. The fact is the majority of the
slaves were white Europeans (Slavic’s to be precise) and further more for the
most part it was black skinned kinky haired Arabs who enslaved them.
If a person now denies that Adam means black, then he/she is saying that
the famous companion of the Prophet Mohamed Bilal ibn Rabah wasn't black
because he is described as Adam complexioned in Arabic.