Does it make sense to have Tom Hardy play Shaft?

Other than the author basing the character on himself please tell me one thing that's specifies that Bond is specifically white as opposed to specifically British. At the time this character was created MI6 was almost exclusively made up of upper class, white men. If the current Bond films were set in the time period that the original books were set in, it would be 100% legitimate to say that Bond should only be played by a white guy since the likelihood of a black intelligence agent at the time was practically, if not literally, unheard of. However that isn't the case. Today's Bond exists in today's secret service world and in that world, there are black 6 agents.