Upon opening the Sunday Times this morning I noticed an article with the eye-catching title 'Did Tolkien have a racist message?'. At first I thought, 'Not again', but it turned out that the article was a clear and balanced investigation of the subject, unlike the article mentioned at the start of this thread. The author (a self-confessed 'Tolkienist') argues convincingly against racism in The Lord of the Rings, but he does not fail to give the various arguments which have been used to try and brand the work as racist. All in all, the author seems to know his stuff, and it might be worth checking out.
The article should be available online at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ , or of course in the newspaper itself.