You should see how much it matters in Saudi Arabia. The families with lighter skin were the most powerful and had the most money. They are very conscience of this. Darker skinned Arabs were nearly at bottom of the pecking order. Arabs with African features were last in line and treated as such. Before I arrived there I always wondered why Syrians had so much influence. When I met them I noticed that many were so light skinned I mistook them for Frenchmen or Southern Europeans.
In college in the mid-70’s I lived in a house with Arab students (our house was actually the headquarters for the ASO, the Arab Students Organization - long story). We also had a black housemate. One day I was talking with a couple of the Arab students when the black student walked into the house and went up to his room. As soon as they saw him, they began talking in Arabic and laughing. I asked them what they were talking about and they said something about “a dark storm cloud coming through”. They definately did not like him (a Viet Nam vet and an extremely nice person). They were very prejudiced toward him.