Inspired by events that happened in my class today. 

Technically, this isn't the "Confederate flag", this is the battle flag for Northern Virginia. (Also the second design of the Navy Jack.) 

THIS ( www.usflag.org/historical/conf… ) Is the final and finished version of the official flag for the south. The red bar on the right was added was to differentiate between the previous design ( www.usflag.org/historical/conf… ) and a surrender flag.

Now I will describe why the above flags are racist and should not at all be a heritage to one's southern pride. 

William T. Thompson, designer of the official confederate flag, had this to say about the design. 

“As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause.” 

-William T. Thompson (April 23, 1863)

The white on the Confederate flag was meant to represent the white supremacy of the white man over the inferior colored race. You read that right, the official designs for the confederate flag were designed originally in racism, hatred for black people. 

So where does the pictured flag, The Confederate Jack come into play with the racism I claim it has? Since I explained that it is not officially the Confederate flag, merely a Navy Jack and the North Virginia Battle Flag then surely it cannot be racist, right?
Wrong.
People wrongly associate the Confederate Navy Jack as being the confederate flag, and despite that, this flag still played it's part in support for the south in the Civil War, especially used by the navy jack at sea from 1863 onward

But just because the Navy Jack played a part in support for the south during the Civil War doesn't inherently make the representation of the flag racist, right? After all, The Civil War wasn't about slavery! It was about State Rights!!
Wrong again.
Technically, you're not wrong about the Civil War being about States' Rights. But the States' Rights had a lot to do with slavery.
You see, people wanted the entirety of slavery to be abolished.
The south wanted the (new) states to vote/choose whether or not they wanted slavery, hence where States' Rights come from.
Everyone states the civil war was about slavery, but Lincoln was shown on record as not really caring about slavery or equality for black people.
the war was mostly about state rights, and some say money.
 but what were those state rights about?
It was really a concept since the 1860’s and it was to differ themselves from the UK. It was a debate over which powers and rights rightly belonged to the states and which rights belonged to the federal government. One of those issues was of course- slavery.
The south wanted it so that the states could vote whether or not the state wanted slaves, making it a state right
The north wanted it to be a federal right to abolish it
So in a way, it was kind of about slavery. in the form of “state rights vs federal rights”
( www.civilwar.org/education/his… ) ( qz.com/378533/for-the-last-tim… ) 

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union…”

-Abraham Lincoln (August 22, 1862)

And last but not least, Robert E. Lee himself was one of the first to reject the flag after the south lost the war. 
To him, the flag became a symbol of treason.
Lee did not want such divisive symbols following him to the grave. At his funeral in 1870, flags were notably absent from the procession. Former Confederate soldiers marching did not don their old military uniforms, and neither did the body they buried. “His Confederate uniform would have been ‘treason’ perhaps!” Lee’s daughter wrote.
“I think it wiser moreover not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered,” he wrote.

And as a kicker, here's another quote from a southern state about white supremacy during the Civil War. 

"We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable." 

-Texas Declaration of Succession (February, 1861 ) 

These flags will always represent racism.