I like the disclaimer Disney puts up on some of its streaming items - it's something like
"This content stereotypes some peoples or cultures - it was wrong then and now but we are keeping it here as a historical document (and to spark conversation)"
(If you have Disney+ go look for the original Dumbo)
I think people have always known that "the zebra (or anybody else) can't change his stripes", but its stripes can change on him (over time). Ages before the concepts of genetics or evolution, they still knew the stripes had to come from somewhere.
And the latest findings here can be convincing to an extent, but not entirely conclusive.
So as it stands nobody still knows for sure how the zebra got its stripes.
"This content stereotypes some peoples or cultures - it was wrong then and now but we are keeping it here as a historical document (and to spark conversation)"
(If you have Disney+ go look for the original Dumbo)