Let's be clear: It's not about race.
At a South Carolina rally over the weekend where supporters of the Confederate flag had gathered, one supporter yelled at a black man to "go back to where you came from." But it's not about race.
When I was employed at a fast food restaurant in Huntsville, TX, more than one person walked in wearing a t-shirt with a big Confederate flag on the front of it. Below the flag, the caption read, "You wear your 'X' [referring to Malcolm X], and I'll wear mine." Definitely not about race.
And more recently, a meme was posted on Facebook pointing out that the Confederate flag offends some people, then says, "Spending my tax dollars to pay the offended peoples bills ,food and rent offends me!" (Errors in punctuation in original.) Nothing at all to do with race.
If you were to ask that rally member, restaurant customer, or meme creator if they were racist, they would all deny it. And they wouldn't just deny it, but secretly know that it was true. They really believe that they're not racist. Because racist people don't think they're racist. That n-word that they just used in casual conversation? They don't mean anything by it, it's just the way they grew up. After all, they have a friend (possibly their best friend) who is black, so they can't be racist.