"The only black people in Ancient Egypt were Nubian soldiers and slaves."
Well, as you can see that’s not true. Several members of the royal house from the famous 18th dynasty had clearly dark skin in their depictions.
There was a lot of intermixing of people in Ancient Egypt, partly because of migration, but also conquest (both by and against Egypt). The idea that dark-skinned people could only be soldiers or slaves is influenced by recent American history. But recent American history is wildly different from Ancient Egypt and its perceptions. This influence gives a distorted view of the history of other societies.
"Why do we have to talk about the pharaohs being dark-skinned? It should be about history."
History has been used to justify oppression. Trying to deny a fact (dark-skinned, high status people in Ancient Egypt) is the true crime against history and against modern race relations.
"So Cleopatra wasn’t white, was she?"
Cleopatra was one pharaoh that was very likely light-skinned. Her family came from Macedonia (her ancestor being one of the generals of Alexander the Great) and intermarried almost exclusively with each other. Cleopatra VII was actually the first of her dynasty who learned to speak Egyptian and was popular in the south as well.
"Why are there not more ancient civilizations in Africa?"
This is a question that is not as innocent as it looks. It is often asked to either prove that dark-skinned people could not have had high status in Ancient Egypt ‘since they did it nowhere else’, or to justify modern power differences between Africa and other countries.
The answer to it? Egypt was not the only ancient civilization in Africa. Right near Egypt were the Land of Punt with its merchants and, with its pointed pyramids, highly sophisticated Nubia. There was also the Nok Culture in Nigeria and Sao Civilization in Cameroon, as well as cities like Malao, Essina and Mosylon in Somalia.
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