Vaderisnothayden said:

But I was pissed off about Samuel L Jackson being Nick Fury. I think it's racist to change the race of a character, at least if the character is well-established, important and popular. I like Jackson (outside of Star Wars, that is) and I think his performance in Black Snake Moan was oscar-worthy, but Nick Fury isn't black. I mean, people would (rightly) be pretty pissed off if they cast a white woman as Storm of the X-Men and I don't see how this is any different.

You've not seen the current Nick Fury then:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Nick_Fury

Not only is the current Nick Fury black, they had permission from SLJ to model him after the actor. SLJ playing a character they redesigned to be based on him was the only way to cast him.