A decade or two ago I recall watching a Discovery channel documentary on Pompeii. Dusplayed were frescos depicting fair skin women being ravaged by negro men with very large appendages. I’m still confused by it to this day.
What I’ve read is that women were depicted in these arts as fairer of skin to indicate that they were weaker than the men. And the male principle, personified as a male person in these pictures, was often shown to have a very large member. It probably didn’t have as much to do with race, as with fertility. (Be careful of superimposing modern notions on the old depictions.)
It’s also always been true that fairer skin among women indicated that they didn’t have to labor out in the Sun - fair skin made them ‘special’ (similar to how excessive ‘avoirdupois’ indicated wealth and status in times and areas where ‘average’ people often didn’t have enough to eat.)
Even now, among the upper classes in Hispanic and Asian areas, the women try to keep their skin as pale as possible. They consider it a sign of beauty and status.