Conversely could you say that in order to capture subjects with lighter skin, you need to increase lighting in the background or else the background will clip?
Here's an article about the cinematography and technology choices: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/12-years...
> he was able to photograph black actors of dramatically different skin tones in a nighttime interior scene using just everyday house lamps, thanks to a sophisticated digital camera. “I just changed the wattage of the bulb, used a dimmer, and I didn’t have to use any film lights. That kind of blew me away,” Patterson says. “The camera was able to hold both of them during the scene without any issues.”
It seems like there might have been tech limitations initially, but with today's technology you can light your backgrounds and expose for either dark or light subjects well. The big challenge is having a photo with 2 subjects in the same exposure who you want to both look good.
Edit: by the way I too have an old Nikon camera. I usually shoot in Aperture priority with some intentional underexposure, and then edit it up in post :)
I ran into this a few weeks ago where I took a picture of a couple friends. The camera decided to pick the friend with dark skin, resulting in him looking great, and my white friend (who isn't even super pale or anything) getting washed out.