the roman empire had lots of black citizens, hell i think they were on equal footing with the pale skins
then the moors again in the 600
No they were not.
While it was not uncommon to find black people within the Roman Republic/Roman Empire ( Greece, Italy, Britannia etc.), they were still a
minority, mostly found in settlements in Northern Africa :
-Mauretania ( Polybius said that Mauri people would sometimes mix with populations from other parts of Africa - blacks parts )
-Africa Pro Consularis ( established after the defeat of Carthage.) This area has been very diverse since the very first stages of the Iron Age.
-Egypt also increased multi-ethnicity within Rome ( Egyptians, Greeks, Thracians, Galatians but also,
Nubians.)
Most weren't citizens.
Some blacks did serve in Auxiliary Units ( The primary qualification for becoming a legionary was Roman citizenship.)
After finishing your service as a member of an Auxilary troop, you would normally receive the
Honesta Missio meaning that you would be relieved from you military service and receive Roman citizenship.
Racism was likely the same as it is today ( some were racist, others weren't)
Here is the account given in the
Historia Augusta of Emperor Septimius Severus encountering a black Auxiliary soldier from Ethiopia at Hadrian's Wall: ( the source is questionable, so take it with a pinch of salt )
22.1. The death of Severus was foreshadowed by the following events: he himself dreamed that he was snatched up to the heavens in a jewelled car drawn by four eagles, whilst some vast shape, I know not what, but resembling a man, flew on before. And while he was being snatched up, he counted out the numbers eighty and nine, and beyond this number of years he did not live so much as one, for he was an old man when he came to the throne...
4. On another occasion, when he was returning to his nearest quarters from an inspection of the wall at Luguvallum in Britain, at a time when he had not only proved victorious but had concluded a perpetual peace, just as he was wondering what omen would present itself, an Ethiopian soldier, who was famous among buffoons and always a notable jester, met him with a garland of cypress-boughs.
5. And when Severus in a rage ordered that the man be removed from his sight, troubled as he was by the man's ominous colour and the ominous nature of the garland, the Ethiopian by way of jest cried, it is said, "You have been all things, you have conquered all things, now, O conqueror, be a god."
6. And when on reaching the town he wished to perform a sacrifice, in the first place, through a misunderstanding on the part of the rustic soothsayer, he was taken to the Temple of Bellona, and, in the second place, the victims provided him were black.
7. And then, when he abandoned the sacrifice in disgust and betook himself to the Palace, through some carelessness on the part of the attendants the black victims followed him up to its very doors.
