We're going to have to be careful with this discussion. Two threads about it were closed.
I don't think his death was racist, nor was his inclusion a case of tokenism. His death spurred Xavier to train the team. Mystique says "We can't even bury him", Magneto says "No, but we can avenge him" and Xavier agrees after some hesitation over them just being kids. In addition, Darwin dies in the comics as a member of an early team, although mainstream audiences wouldn't know that.
Having said that, the death did not take account of the perceptions and sensitivities of all viewers and it ended up fitting Hollywood cliche, even though never intending to do so. It was rather ill-judged. I think they were simply choosing to use a character that bites the dust in the comics, so his death would not cause upset like those in X3 did, but because it was a black character it has caused a different kind of upset.
I doubt they'll bring him back (though it's possible) but at least we now have Singer mentioning that Civil Rights are likely to feature in the next movie. I was saying this all along, that to put Civil Rights on top of the Cold War and the Holocaust in this first film would be laying it on a bit thick. In 1963, a year after the events of First Class we have Martin Luther King's iconic 'I Have A Dream' speech, which ties in nicely with Xavier's own idealistic dream.
We definitely need more ethnic minority representation in the next film, and another female X-Men member too.
Synch or Sunspot seem good choices for male ethnic minority mutants.