Racism. Supremacy. Color Theory.

I asked a group of artists if they felt that racism can be perpetuated by a poor understanding of color theory. 

The response I received was pretty judgmental and the discussion didn't move much. 

I posed this question because as I study art I am lead to the conclusion that the average individual has no working knowledge of color theory and it affects how they perceive color. I also am leaning on the idea that there was some purposeful misinformation funneled into color theory in an effort to confuse the concept of color.

So I pose the question in this forum;

If "Black" people are tints and shades of brown, why do we refer to them as black and if "White" people are some tint of brown, why do we refer to them as white?

How messed up does our perception of color have to be to confuse such a simple concept?

We could not account for every pigment that presents itself among human beings so would we discontinue identifying people by color if we thought to consider each hue and would this assist in the extinction of racism?