[Lalwendë]

One of the big drawbacks of course of Reader Response is that we can call a text anything we like if we can find a tiny bit of evidence to support it, even if that evidence is simply our 'feelings' in response to the text. So I wouldn't be surprised if more racist accusations turned up.

Of course we know that there is plenty of evidence in the text to support Tolkien not only not being racist but being actively anti-racist. However that's not going to be of any value when used to combat someone's feelings about the text.

You get exactly the same thing with modern readers accusing Austen of being racist simply by not having any black people in her novels, despite references to the slave trade being immoral in Mansfield Park. And again, there has been for along time a lobby for Heathcliffe being black - even though he is probably an Irish scouser. People don't read texts in isolation any longer, hoping to discern what the Author says, the Author is dead and they drag in everything but the kitchen sink from their own lives and impose it on the text so consequently for a lot of readers, yes, Tolkien is racist, and we won't convince them otherwise.