According to the comments on this question, there may have been racism in Middle-earth. Was there? If so, was it rampant or isolated?
Please note that I am asking about in-universe racism, not racism displayed (or not displayed) by Tolkien or by filmmakers.
This is a different question from:
Answer
It might be better to call it "speciesism". But it was clearly a constant theme, at least in the first book, and to a lesser extent in the films. In the movies, elves and dwarves clearly hate each other. Gimli complains about the elf Haldir's frosty reception, and says "I spit on your grave" in Dwarvish, for which Aragorn scolds him. In the book Fellowship of the Ring, it is more widespread.
Gandalf, says, albeit affectionately:
Ever since Bilbo left, I have been deeply concerned about you, and about all these charming, absurd, helpless hobbits. It would be a grievous blow to the world, if the Dark Power overcame the Shire; if all your kind, jolly, stupid Bolgers, Hornblowers, Boffins, Bracegirdles, and the rest, not to mention the ridiculous Bagginses, became enslaved.
He also routinely seems surprised that Frodo isn't a wimp.
The elf Gildor initially doesn't want Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin to join his group, because:
We have no need of other company, and hobbits are so dull.
Elves seem to show condescension towards men and hobbits in general, treating them like children. The elf Lindir of Rivendell thinks so little of hobbits and men that he can't tell the difference between them -
It is not easy for us to tell the difference between two mortals.
When Bilbo takes exception to this, Lindir says
To sheep, other sheep no doubt appear different
but to elves all mortals - not just individual mortals, but different species of mortals - are essentially indistinguishable from one another.
Mortals have not been our study. We have other business.
When Frodo wakes up in Rivendell, he tells Gandalf that he has grown fond of Strider, and continues:
I didn't know that any of the Big People were like that. I thought, well, that they were just big, and rather stupid: kind and stupid like Butterbur; or stupid and wicked like Bill Ferny.
At the dinner in Rivendell honoring Frodo, the dwarf Glóin says the humans in Dale are friendlier to dwarves than men anywhere else, but even the men of Dale
are not over fond of dwarves.
Of course, everyone despises orcs, trolls, and goblins. Humans tend to show condescension towards hobbits, and jealous contempt towards elves. And the exiled Rohirrim are obviously shocked to see a man, a dwarf, and an elf together, and suspicious of their intentions and reasons for being in Rohan.
There is actually a page on Tolkien Gateway titled "Racism in Tolkien's Works", where I found many relevant tidbits:
The dwarves of course are quite obviously - wouldn't you say that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic obviously, constructed to be Semitic.
― J.R.R. Tolkien
What negative stereotypes apply to real world Jews and Tolkien's Dwarves? One need look no further than Elrond's comment at the council:
Who will you look to when we've gone? The Dwarves? They toil away in caverns, seeking riches. They care nothing for the troubles of others.
So Dwarves care only about material wealth - a common slur leveled at Jews by antisemites for centuries.
Also:
Racism in Middle-earth
Tolkien portrays racism within the "heroic" races as unabashedly negative. Elves and Dwarves distrust each other. Some Elves hunted the Petty-dwarves as animals, as did the Rohirrim to the Woses. The friendship between Legolas and Gimli is portrayed as unusual but commendable, and several scenes illustrate them learning to understand and respect each other's cultural differences. When Gimli takes a strand of Galadriel's hair, he is described as having "look[ed] into the heart of an enemy and saw there love and understanding."
It is notable that there is apparently racism within the ranks of Orcs as the Uruk-hai held themselves as superior to the common Orcs, whom they called snaga (slave).
The point-of-view characters of the book -- the hobbits -- are themselves of a race that is frequently described as being overlooked, under-estimated, and lightly regarded by the other races of Middle-earth, yet they often demonstrate far greater courage and nobility than the races who denigrate them. They are not without prejudice, however, and Gandalf is shown reprimanding Frodo for his comments on Barliman Butterbur.
The Númenóreans of Gondor fell to infighting because of a supposed need for racial purity, especially concerning the ancestry of their king (the Kin-strife), and grew weaker as a result. In this affair, the villain was the pure-blooded Númenórean Castamir while the hero was the half-Númenórean Eldacar.
The "Middle-earth & J.R.R. Tolkien Blog" addresses this issue at length, and seems to summarize the answer very well:
Q: Is It True There is Racism in The Lord of the Rings?
ANSWER: Yes, it is true there is racism in The Lord of the Rings. However, many people who ask this question may really mean to ask, “Is The Lord of the Rings a racist work of fiction?” Although some people claim that is the case they are mistaken for J.R.R. Tolkien embedded numerous examples of the folly of racism in The Lord of the Rings. In other words, it would be difficult for any other modern work of fiction to be as anti-racist as The Lord of the Rings.
For more along these lines, see my answer to the question about whether the racism in Middle-earth was intentional on Tolkien's part.
Edit: It should be noted that Gandalf's obvious affection for hobbits does not make his statements less prejudiced. It merely designates his prejudice as "benevolent racism" or "benevolent prejudice". Such a thing exists, and is very common - some examples include "black people are good at basketball" and "Asians are good at math". Prejudiced statements said with affection, even when the statements are complimentary, are still prejudiced. It is easier to see this by way of analogy - imagine someone saying "I love black people; they are so absurd, helpless, ridiculous, stupid, and charming". If Gandalf had said this, no one would suggest that he wasn't racist, despite the affectionate terms mingled in with the offensive ones (and indeed, he uses all these words to describe hobbits). The same holds true for the elves who make racist remarks but otherwise show affection for the races in question.
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