Individuals can see the flag as being part of their heritage and wave it without inherently being racist themselves, and it's easy for people to be raised into that mindset with how much the confederacy has been whitewashed over the years, but there's very obvious racist imagery and history behind the flag.

Imagine if after WWII Germany went on a PR campaign to brush some of its crimes under the rug and generations later German citizens who may or may nor know better proudly waving the Nazi flag because it's 'part of their heritage'. You can see why many other people would be upset about it.

Are people who fly a swastika simply expressing price in their German heritage? I think most people would argue that it's racist to do so, either way.

People can claim all they want about whether they think the Confederate battle flag is racist, but at the end of the day, said people are defending a banner that symbolizes the armed insurrection against a democratic government with the sole, express aim of protecting slavery based on race.