The state of South Carolina did the right thing by removing the Confederate battle flag from a flagpole on the grounds of the South Carolina State House. Why? Because the flag had been flown there only since the late 1940s, when it was raised as a symbol of defiance against the emerging civil rights movement.
Before that time, the Confederate battle flag was not a very significant symbol of racism or resistance to the guarantee of equal rights to black people. It was just a part of the military history of the Civil War. If the Confederate battle flag had already been the state flag of South Carolina or some other state before the Civil War, then its symbolism
might be different.
But because it was officially adopted by the state of South Carolina as a
symbol of a desire by whites to keep blacks a second class citizens, it became a symbol of racism. The fact that some southerners and others (like people attending the Calgary Stampede) do not intend to send a message of racism by displaying it doesn't matter. Over the past several decades, it became a symbol too closely related with racism and thus no government in the United States should display it on government property or incorporate its design into an official state flag (as the state of Mississippi still does).
The question of the Confederate battle flag is somewhat comparable to the symbol of the swastika. Before its adoption by the Nazis, the swastika was a common symbol used by Buddhists and Hindus throughout Asia (it can still be seen on some temples in Asia). The swastika had no inherently evil meaning before the Nazis used it during their reign. But once the Nazis adopted it, it came to symbolize the many evil aspects of the Nazi regime. At least in the West, we recognize that any person or group who displays a Nazi symbol or flag wants to communicate an evil message.
Nevertheless, no government in the United States has banned the display of the Confederate battle flag or for that matter, the Nazi swastika. The Supreme Court (even the current relatively liberal Court) would probably rule that the First Amendment prohibits a government from banning the
private display of such symbols (though some governments in Europe do ban the private display of the swastika). You want to hang a Confederate battle flag from your front porch in the United States, go ahead.
So it is not true that any government has
banned the display of the Confederate battle flag. On the other hand, private organizations have decided to discourage or ban its use at events they organize. It is their right to do so and probably reflects an economic concern about the symbolism of the flag as much as a moral concern. Whatever the reason, it's probably a good thing.
I wonder what happens next though. What about all the monuments to Confederate soldiers and war heroes that dot the center of towns and cities in the south? What about the statues of nine Confederate generals and statesmen who are represented among the 100 men (including Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee) whose statues stand in the
National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol? Many progressives probably believe that all these statues and monuments must be the next things to go.
However, I don't think so. Once you start down the road of removing any and all symbols that
might offend anyone in any fashion, there is no end to it. That kind of ritual purging of offending symbols is what totalitarian movements and societies are good at. I think a monument to Johnny Reb standing in the middle of a small town is a useful reminder of history. A lot of the people who would like to see such a monument torn down don't even know the basic facts of their own history such as when and why the Civil War was fought (and yes, the main cause of the war was the issue of slavery and whether it would be allowed in new parts of the U.S.), who were the adversaries and what were the outcome and the consequences of the war. The history of the United States (or any country for that matter) is a messy story and you cannnot purge the unsavory aspects of a country's history by tearing down statues.
So move the Confederate battle flags from government property to museums where they belong but let the statues of Johnny Reb stand. Because he might inspire people to learn about the history, both good and bad, of the place and the country where they live and that's a good thing.