...I gave this some thought....and if she is indeed referring to the story "A Death", there is no reference at all to the ethnicity of the "accused"...just his apparent sly, yet simple-mindedness....there were several occasions where the term "black" was used-but not as skin color, more to the color of the sky, the color of his soul and in one instance-the mother of the murdered child calls him a "black liar", but that's a pejorative as to his heart than anything else...not sure why it caught the OP "off guard", it's not King's first foray into Westerns for heaven's sake, and he has insulted purt near all races within the contextual development of his tales....and the weather?....I don't feel this had anything to do with the mood of the story....also, if you're trying to make some type of insinuation that King was being "racist" you really need to re-read this tale and get to know his body of work much better, not to mention the man himself.....