Well, on the black and pale ale thing: I'm not sure India Pale Ales were necessarily called "pale ales" because of their color back in the 1800s. It's just a name, like porter...what's porter mean? Stout doesn't describe a color of the beer...but the flavor of it; the color is just implied to be dark. Amber ale refers to the color of the beer explicitly. ESB doesn't, pilsner doesn't, lambic doesn't, etc. My point is, a beer's style name doesn't necessarily have to refer to it's color, but whatever else. Does Pilsner not refer to a region, such as Pilsen in the Czech Republic? India pale ale just refers to the beer that was taken from from Britain to India.
Note: I'm playing Devil's Advocate here, more or less. I think black IPA is contradictory as well, but thinking about it, it may not be as ridiculous as it seems on the surface. Afterall, it's just a name. And yes, Cascadian Dark Ale does refer to a region, but 1) it sounds retarded 2) the style is debated to have started on the east coast, not the pacific NW.
American black ale makes sense, india black ale sounds good too...
Catch my drift?