I should say, the use of the word 'folk' I object to is the very way the original poster used it. He presumed we would all understand that he meant Anglo/Anglo American music to be the default definition of 'folk' as he invoked it in the original post.

There is a pronounced tendency among the Anglo and Anglo American dominant cultures to use the word 'folk' to describe 'our' music, and 'world' or 'roots' music to describe 'the other' in ways that veils the racial differences between us (folk musicians, who are white) and them (roots or world musicians who are of other races).

That is what I'm talking about. In Britain, there is a tendency among 'folk musicians' to refer to non-Anglo music traditions in terms other than 'folk', and to reserve the use of the word 'folk' to mean English or British music traditions. In North America, there doesn't seem to be that same tendency as much. Although as the original poster from the US illustrates, it isn't uncommon for some Americans to mean Anglo/Anglo American as the default definition, when they say 'folk' music. With the folk music communities I am immersed in here in Minnesota--from bluegrass to polka music to Irish traditional music to pow wow music to blues to klezmer--'folk' refers to the indigenous music traditions of any ethnic group that isn't popular or classical or jazz, not just the Anglo/Anglo American or as some people say 'British Isles' music traditions.