Large Black populations in Rome did not produce color prejudice.

Evidence

The presence of large numbers of Negroes in a white society, according to some modern views, gives rise to anti-Negro feeling. Ethiopians were far from rare sights in the Greco-Roman, particularly the Roman, world. Yet the intense color prejudice of the modern world was lacking. Although it is impossible to estimate the Negro element in the classical world in terms of precise statistics, it is obvious that the Black population in Greece and Italy was larger than has been generally realized. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 445

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the ‘contact hypothesis’ type claims about diversity causing prejudice — connects to modern debates about racial contact.
• DEEPTHINKING: Challenges a deep modern assumption that prejudice is a natural response to racial difference — suggesting racism is a constructed, historical ideology, not an automatic human reaction.