This topic may be controversial, so please hold your emotions. I hope that we can discus it in calm manner.
So, I admire Tolkiens work, huge lore which he created with attention to details.
However, as much as I envy his work, there was always one thing that kept irritating me while reading LOTR, Silmarillion and other Tolkiens works.
West vs East.
For some reason Tolkien focused a lot on depicting west as chivalric, good-natured, full of love and courage while depicting east as barbaric, cruel and fusty. Of course this is oversimplification and there were exceptions, but the general rule stands. I never understood emphasis which he put on this.
I understand that this might be a result from his war experience, as well as worlds division between capitalist and communist during his life.
In this manner you can say that Mordor is a hybrid of nazi Germany and USRR. But this is only one small example. Virtually all eastern civilisations in his uninverse are inferior to western counterparts.
So, here is a thing to discuss: was Tolkien considering "western" cultures to be superior to "eastern" ones in real world? Was he racist? Or maybe his fictional universe is not a reflection of his real life views at all?
Personally, I wouldn't look too deeply into the matter. What you are saying is certainly correct... and I think it is most likely a refection of the world he lived in at the time of his life as a writer. I do not think he was a racist. I think that he probably based what he saw as the "Good guys" on himself, as many writers do. Its probably as simple as that :)
I was actually thinking about this a few days ago. Our current society is ridiculously polarizing. I personally know a number of great people who are old enough to have grown up before the American Civil Rights movement and thus have racist tendencies. They are considerate and kind about it, but some of them don't believe that black people should preach in church, for example. What I'm trying to say is that good people can carry flaws from the culture they grew up in. I think that Tolkien falls into this category. In early 20th century England, the Orient, Africa, and Middle-East were considered backwards and barbaric. Given the opportunity, though, I think Tolkien would have loved exploring those foreign cultures and meeting their peoples.
Bottom line: Tolkien was a great guy, he just grew up in a flawed society.
Now he is my take, remember that Tolkien lived during second world war, now thinking about how much he was against industry (specially LOTR) and how everyonw thinks on the LOTR as similar to WWII Sauron and Saruman would represent Germany and Italy respectely, and at that moment in both countries had a boom in industry. Or perhaps in UK the east is much more industrialazed than the west and he draw inspiration from that.
And about Tolkien growing in a flawed society while yes that can be true and thats the reason also see how he wrote about women when the womens right didnt even began in United States (sorry if I have the years wrong in my mind)
Also could be that it was just a way to put good versus evil like heaven and hell and that is just a fictional thing like good vs evil
"Perilous indeed," said Aragorn, "fair and perilous; but only evil need fear it, or those who bring some evil with them. Follow me!" As they entered Lothlorien. I think that this is something to remember when you read any of Tolkien's books. Don't bring things with you into the books, you can find anything you want to if you are so inclined. The only racism in his writings is between dwarves and elves or men which is more of a distrust from past wrongs that are still remembered. As far as someone being good or bad where they come from makes little difference as we can see in the Istari Saruman makes evil choices and goes down with the bad guys even though he came from the "Lords of the West" The Numenorian kings eventually turned fully evil for the most part to the point where the island was cast down, and they were as far West as any men could get. Smeagol chooses evil things and in turn becomes ruled by the ring itself even though his people were hobbits or very similar. The best soldier in Gondor (Boromir) as well as the Steward of Gondor made some bad choices and nearly ruined the fellowship or the defense of Gondor. The Witch King of Angmar is from the North. I just don't think that there is any kind of directional hatred or implication of better or worse people in his writings. I see consistent results based on choices made by characters and although The Lords of the West have great influence, being nearer to them has no bearing on the choices made by men or elves. The kin slayings by the elves in the undying lands and the fall of Numenor being examples. I think Middle Earth is a wonderful place to forget about the troubles of our own highly complicated world while we visit.
It stems from Tolkien's war experiences i should imagine. The German trenches were in the east. You could also say that middle earth is comparable to late dark age Europe where European nations were being attacked by outside invaders in the East so naturally those peoples would have been seen as 'evil' in the eyes of the west. Same with the main characters in LOTR, who were westerners. Tolkien was a keen historian after all and there is lots of cool stuff that happened that he could injected into his fantasy.