This Cleopatra kerfuffle is saying the quiet part out loud.
While American/European culture has, over time, come to not only accept but to celebrate people of African descent, most other people are irredeemably racist towards them.
Egyptians are mortified to be represented as black.
Actually, according to the Bible the Egyptians and the Blacks had a common ancestor, Ham. However, the Egyptians were by no means sub-Saharan — and this is what upsets the Blacks, who desperately want claim to some great civilization. Therefore, they’ll “blackwash” anything for the sake of self-esteem.