I don't think one needs to be hyper-sensitive on racial issues to see the song as a being about racial lynchings, any more than one needs to be from the American West, to see the song as being about vigilante justice Texas-style.

People tend to have immediate first impressions of songs, just as they do people. If your first impression of the song wasn't that it was racist, that's fine. But it is also fine that people whose first impression of the song was that it was racist. There is no need to disprove or deny the first impressions of people responding to the song as being racist, yet I get the distinct feeling that is precisely what some people here feel they want and need to do.

Don't think it is a racist song? Fine. Think it is a racist song? That's fine too. There is room in this world for both opinions, and no need for one group to stomp on the other. It is the diversity of opinion that makes the discussion of music worthwhile, after all.