The name's....er....

So the question is - can you have a black James Bond?  One of the things to have come out of the recent leaked e-mails from Sony is a suggestion that Idris Elba "should be the next Bond".  Only problem - he's black. No questioning his acting ability or that he could carry off the part, but....?  The issue seems to be - to what extent do we owe a duty to Ian Fleming to be true to the books he wrote? He certainly portrayed Bond as white - but then it could be argued that he wrote M (Bond's boss) as male, whereas the role has been played over several films now by Judy Dench.  So if one character can be fundamentally changed, why not another?  I have to say I would find it difficult to accept a black James Bond, though I can't really explain why.