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Like any symbol, the Confederate flag has many meanings, and layers of meanings, and like any symbol, it is often seen differently by the people displaying it and the people viewing it.
In Mississippi, my high school symbol was the CF, so I've displayed it and waved it at football games with no racist intentions whatsoever, just to show pride in my school, and at times to show pride in my home state. I wouldn't do this anymore, you understand, because of the meaning others take from the flag. No matter what I mean by it, there are some who take it a different way, so I wouldn't insult them.
For others the flag has always been a symbol of defiance. The Confederates were called "Rebels," so some people display the flag as symbol of defiance against authority. In the South it was always defiance against the Federal government, but it was also defiance against proper behavior, against convention. All the things calling someone a rebel implies.
It was never a symbol of racism, not directly. It's always been more of a symbol of defiance and of Southern pride. But it became a symbol used by white supremacists and white separatists, usually Southern, to show their defiance of the US Government, and their belief that the Confederacy was right, or whatever they think. Because of that, it became associated with racists, and so it has strong racist overtones to those viewing the flag. That's the part southerners and others displaying the flag don't really grasp. They don't fly the flag to be racist, so they don't understand why others take it that way. Many of them may be racist, and racism may even be at the heart of why they are flying it (A lot of the defiance against the US government comes from forced desegregation), but in itself it isn't meant to say "I'm a racist," or "I hate African Americans." It's meant to say "I'm a rebel, I live by my own rules, I defy the US government." It's like a giant middle finger to the rules. Those people are only encouraged to fly it when people tell them not to.
Tom Petty's song "I was born a rebel" used to inspire a lot of Confederate Flag waving, and I think Petty used to wave the flag at his concerts during the song. It was a song about defiance, like many of Petty's songs. But he eventually stopped waving it, and started telling fans to stop bringing the flag to his concert, because he understood what it meant to other people. I've gone through that learning process, too. It's not easy, even now I get a touch of pride at the sight of the flag, more than a sense of revulsion. But I can't wave it anymore, because it doesn't say what I want it to say anymore. In some ways it never did. Not everyone is going to reach that awareness. It's a symbol of defiance, so taking the flag down is a symbol of giving in. You see the problem? The people who are most proud of it are encouraged by the mainstream opposition to it.
My point is, there's no telling why the pickup driver was displaying it. Maybe he or she is from the South. Maybe they are just being defiant (not against the US gov, though, since you said there was an American flag). Maybe they are just flipping off society, the way people do with the old Johnny Cash photo with him flipping off the audience. Or maybe he or she is a complete racist and flying the flag to show support of that. They migh even just think the sticker looks cool. You couldn't tell without further evidence, or without talking to him or her. I had a very racist neighbor once. Likable guy, more of a separatist then a supremacist (hard to explain the difference). He flew a Confederate flag in his garage, and left the door open all the time. His wife was not racist in any way. They both liked the flag. When another neighbor mentioned it, both claimed it had nothing to do with racism. The guy was racist, but that wasn't why he was flying the flag. ike I said, it's a complex symbol.
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