Paul's post is great, but fwiw, I think it'd be so easy to make the races of Middle Earth better reflect the races of Earth with very little clapback from audiences or from Tolkien's family and estate. His writing definitely reflects the time, but probably Tolkien of today would be a "better" man than the Tolkien of the past.
I'd love to see the purity and hopefulness of his original works in tact (i.e. not going the route of GoT...which, I also love, but they're very different stories). But it would be so easy to slip in Black and Latino and Asian elves and dwarves, and white people into the baddies. In today's world, there's nothing saying we CAN'T.
Your fears and criticism are definitely founded, Spuuky, but I don't think it's something that necessarily will happen. And it's definitely not something that has to be retained to keep true to the spirit of his works.