The Confederate flag means what you want it to mean... I once saw a married couple buy a Confederate flag and the woman was an African American and she didn't see it as a racist flag. Sure, bad things have happened during that period, but not all of it was bad and it's not an official symbol of slavery. It's an American flag that was used during a time in which there was a lot of racism and slavery, that's all.
By the way, the word racism itself is racist. It is as if there are different races that can be compared with each other but both Genesis and modern-day scientists agree that all of us are ancestors of one origin, one race - the human race. It is a shame that some who called themselves Christians took Africans and sold them as slaves in America and they thought God thought it was a normal thing to do but it's not.