Why is the Confederate Flag a "Racist Symbol"?

The detractors of the Confederate flag, including the moron who sat in for Michael Savage today, one John DePetro, insist that the Confederate flag is a "symbol of racism."  However, who made it that way?

The Klan has sometimes used the flag, but they are a tiny minority of malcontents, and do not represent the great majority of people who see the flag as a sacred heritage symbol.  Apparently, those who misuse the flag are to be given credibility over the majority who do not.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans sued the Klan to make them stop using the flag, but lost the case.  The flag, it seems, is in the public domain and anyone can use it for whatever purpose they wish.

In 1991 the NAACP declared war on the Confederate flag, and began a campaign of eliminating it from the public square.  Since liberals see this organization as the voice of all black people, they quickly got on board.  Movies and films have used the flag in totally negative ways, always presenting it as a symbol of racism or other villains.  Remember the Tom Hanks film "Forrest Gump?"  Hooligans in a car chase poor Forrest Gump to bully him.  On their front bumper is a Confederate flag.  Such negative images are constantly insinuated into the mind of the public by popular media.  

The NAACP's motive was to create a program for their members.  Since this useless organization has failed miserably at solving the problems of black people, e.g. school drop-out rates, illegitimacy, crime, drug abuse and poverty, they needed something they could succeed at.  Something they could point to as a success.  Some symbol that could be used to motivate the membership, like waving a red flag at a bull.

Liberals and Yankee-philes find it easy to think of the flag as a racist symbol, because it agrees with their prejudices and preconceived notions, and because it reinforces the Northern Myth, i.e., that the evil South hated and mistreated blacks, but the enlightened North loved, emancipated and advanced blacks.  After years of this propaganda, it is of little wonder why the murderer Dylann Roof was photographed waving a Confederate flag.  No doubt he had been listening to liberals for far too long, about what they say the flag means, instead of what it actually means to most Southerners.  

Every time a Confederate flag, symbol or song is banished from the public domain, it strengthens the public perception that these icons represent race hatred and evil -- and the slander increases exponentially.  We have fought to preserve these icons, because to do less would be to abandon them to racial extremists.  Unfortunately, we are losing the fight.

I say that this undeserved reputation was created not so much by extremist groups like the Klan, but by popular media and morons like John DePetro, and by the esteemed but mistaken Mark Levin.