Race Determinates Character in Tolkien's World

There's an issue really in Tolkien's world. Race determines character. We do get evil white people like Saruman. And Gimli is a proper hero who values the Earth's beauty. C.S. Lewis, quite a conservative Christian character, wrote a review in 1955 of The Lord of the Rings that reported some readers as racist. Imagine they have seen a rigid demarcation between black and white people drawn along clear moral lines. So this passes what I call the evil genius test. Was it in its time seem to be problematic? For me this is an issue.