But Arne -- are you now, or have you ever been, an American? Or even been *in* the USA?

I still stand by my hunch that the knee-jerk equation of any mention of a noose in the context of the United States somehow relates to KKK-type lynching of black folks betrays the complainant as either:

(A) A European whose knowledge of American life is limited to a set of stereotypes, or

(B) a professional leftist protester type, more likely to be a white person obsessed with the plight of black people than an actual descendant of Africans, or (of course)

(C) both of the above.

I've got nothing against black folks or, for that matter, leftists. I've done my share of jail time as a protester for peace and freedom (though not in the last decade or three), have spent most of my life living in mixed-race neighborhoods, and during the years I spent trying to make a living in music, was often the only white person in the room when playing a gig. I think I know something about the *real* problems and grievances of Black Americans, and this country song ain't it.

The cowboy do-it-yourself justice portrayed in the tune we're discussing may well be wrong, ignorant, indicative of current-day flag-waving yahooism, etc., etc., etc., but one thing it is NOT is racist.