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I don't think it's sad - I think it's dead on.
First, let me say that I am a HUGE, geeky fan of Tolkien, and of the movies. I read the books once a year, I've read the Silmarilion a dozen times, have the Atlas of Middle Earth, can recite the lineage of Elrond, and wear clothes with Sindarin elvish on them. I think Peter Jackson is a fucking god. So, Tolkien-philia and geek cred established...
...I did notice in the movie that the good guys are all classic caucasian-looking Northern European hotties, and the bad guys who aren't orcs are all either Asian/Middle Eastern-looking or swarthy mediterranean-looking barbarians. You might say it's true to Tolkien's vision, but nowhere in his books is a physical description of the Southrons given, and it would have been possible (and perhaps wise, given the cultural climate of the day) to be less derivative of Middle Eastern culture in the design of these characters.
I do think you have to take this with a grain of salt, though. The movie is racist only to the extent that we live in a racist society, which we do. Does it reinforce negative stereotypes of non-Western cultures? Yup. Should that override the movie's deeper themes of honor, friendship, courage, and perseverance? Nope. We live in a flawed world, and this is a flawed (but awesome!) movie. If the alternative is to only show white people in all the roles, we'd have heard criticism of that, too. And color-blind casting of the good guys in this case would have been a huge distraction from the story, IMHO.
I do draw the line at saying kids shouldn't be exposed to this movie because it portrays racial stereotypes. Young kids shouldn't see it because it's gory and scary, but I see no problem with letting older kids see it. You have to look at pop culture as a gestalt, not expect every piece of work to be all things to all people. So they're exposed to stereotypes here, but they get a racially diverse heroic cast in the Matrix films, and they listen to rap and blah blah blah. As long as the overall whole of pop culture that kids are exposed to is diverse, the individual pieces of it can be taken for what they are. And it's also stupid to assume that just because people see negative stereotypes we're going to buy into them like brainwashed slugs. I was troubled by the Middle Eastern-looking villains, but I also enjoyed the movie. The audience is neither monolithic nor stupid.
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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