The killing off of B'wana Beast in Animal Man was pointless to begin with. I doubt killing Freedom Beast had anything to do with racism. He was just a boring, useless character that happened to be black.
I think it has more to do with his curious popularity with DC animation. The white B'wana Beast appeared in a popular episode of JLU, had a teaser opening in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and he's set to be spotlighted in his own episode with Batman.