To the best of my knowledge, it's accepted that they were Berbers and Arabs, so why are they often referred to as being black (the scene from True Romance immediately comes to mind)? And when did this perception develop? It couldn't have just originated from the Afrocentrists because Shakespeare obviously predates them by quite a bit, and Othello is portrayed as black (assuming he was originally portrayed like that anyway). Is it just because they were from North Africa and a lot of people didn't/don't know any better?