After watching the trailer again, Beast Boy definitely has green skin.
Only when he uses his powers, apparently. In the publicity photo released during SFCC, only his hair was green, with black roots.
There was definitely racism behind the reaction he got but I was under the impression it was also because Jimmy was reimagined as a hunky ladies man which is very far removed from the character as depicted previously.
Well, first off, the whole point was that the show was set about a dozen years into Superman's career, after cub reporter Jimmy Olsen had matured into celebrated photojournalist James Olsen. I'm surprised how many people didn't understand the simple concept of time passing and people growing.
Second, the modern perception that Jimmy Olsen is "supposed to be" a gawky nerd is based almost entirely on Jack Larson and Marc McClure. When he was created for radio, the intent of Jimmy Olsen was that he was the cool kid, the identification figure for the show's young audience. His wide-eyed wholesomeness and "Jeepers, golly, Mr. Kent" attitude may seem nerdy in retrospect, but by '40s standards he was pretty much the idealized 12- or 13-year-old boy, a smart, adventurous, and resourceful youth who got to be Superman's pal and go on amazing adventures and be the kid that every boy in the audience wished he could be. When he got his own comic in the '50s thanks to the TV show, Jimmy became an adventure hero in his own right with no shortage of love interests (albeit in the wholesome, sexless way dictated by the Comics Code), and by the '70s the Jimmy of the comics had matured into a world-famous, globetrotting TV reporter with a shelf full of awards and a reputation for fearlessness. Remember, this was an era when Lois Lane was pretty much relegated to obsessing over love and marriage all the time, so Jimmy had the intrepid-reporter attributes that Lois regained in the Donner movie and the post-Crisis reboot and has held onto ever since. So yes, there is a comics precedent for
Supergirl's portrayal of James Olsen. (Even the superhero part, since Jimmy frequently got temporary superpowers in his own title and was even a part-time member of the Legion of Super Heroes, though as Elastic Lad rather than Guardian.)