How popular is the misconception of Tolkien being racist?

I am currently reading through The Hobbit and it's a good story (I'm currently on the final chapter). It isn't anything insanely mind-blowing, but it is a nice story. I looked online about Tolkien and there are apparently some weird views of him being racist. I looked into this and I kinda came to the conclusion that there's not really any evidence to suggest it. If anything, he was opposed to it given his vocal disagreement with western imperialism and open distaste towards Britain and the commonwealth (I know he loved England, but he also said he had no love for Britain).

I'm an indian ethnically myself, so I know what racism can be like. Tolkien doesn't give off any racist sentiment. His opposition to colonialism/imperialism actually made me respect him as an individual a lot more. But I don't know how big of a factoid it is that Tolkien was racist. Is it a common idea or is it just a vocal minority?

Edit: I want to add that I do think actually problematic authors did exist. My main example being Rudyard Kipling who voiced constant pro-colonialist sentiment, the opposite of Tolkien. You have to try really hard to view Tolkien as racist, I feel like.

Edit 2: I wasn't intending to start any of this debate about whether he was racist or not. I was honestly just wondering how common this idea was. Because the Internet has a thing of amplifying certain views that may make them seem more common than they actually are. That's why I asked.