The merit of "Dark" and "Pale" rather than to "Black" and "White" is to remind us that most people are at the same time darker than some other people and paler than others. And of course some people who are counted as "Black" are paler than others are counted as "White", and the other way round as well.

Because, of course, it isn't about colour of skin as such, at least in theory. That's why Hispanics in the USA can be any colour. It's about ethnicity, or what is perceived as ethnicity, and about the treatment some ethnic groups have had imposed on them over the years and the centuries.
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What Azizi said, about the way that the history of slavery and what came after can perhaps predispose African Americans against seeing the past as something they want to value, makes lot of sense.

I was reminded of what I have heard about how, at one time anyway, aspects of Jewish culture associated with Eastern Europe, including the Yiddish language and Klezmer music, were by some seen as things to be rejected, as too painfully linked with the Holocaust. And I think there are other examples of a similar process.

That would suggest that in time there could be a reawakening of interest in the African American musical heritage, as appears to have happened in other groups with painful histories. (And that's one reason I put in that link to the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who seem to represent that kind of process - though my main reason was because they make great music, and deserve to be brought to wider attention.)