There's a whole episode of The Cleveland Show (as in Cleveland Brown, the black character from Family Guy) where Cleveland gets upset at his neighbor friend for flying a Confederate flag on his house and finally tries to get rid of it. When he fails, he confronts the hick neighbor and calls him a racist. The neighbor doesn't understand why Cleveland is upset and when Cleveland points to the flag the neighbor says, "What, my Dukes of Hazard flag?"

Cleveland immediately realizes he approached the problem from the completely wrong angle and drops the matter indefinitely. They continue to be friends.

Sure, and the context of "that time" was yet another Southern Grievance over the checks notes

Civil Rights Act and continued victories against bigotry in the decade leading to Dukes.

Including police officers enforcing laws like desegregation of schools.

Fun Exercise Btw:

Pick a southern county, look up what years the private schools in the area were founded.

Plus the black people that do appear in the show are always equals to the Hazard Boys. They never depict the Hazard Boys being anything but accepting of everyone except Boss Hog and his law dawgs.

I was never into it or pretty much anything country-related, being an Airwolf, Mission Impossible (the reboot), and MacGuyver kinda kid, but Dad liked it, and explained it to me pretty much the way you did.

That's because that's all it was.

I watched it a bit growing up and never got racist vibes from it either. The Confederate flag just meant "the south" to me back then. I knew a lot of people with them on various knick knacks and articles of clothing that I never witnessed being racist either. I don't think people put so much thought into it back then.

These days though, yeah if you're still flying that flag you're probably an asshole.

I got into a heated argument (preschool) about whether the car jumped or flew. My dumbass neighbors (my age and younger) contended that it flew. Their mother backed them up. I bet they turned out really fucked up with a parent who was willing to lie to them and distort reality rather than hit them with a dose of reality. I was super mad about it. And now look at me: I’m an atheist who believes in Leftwing politics, so I’d say that on the spectrum from reality to fucked, I turned out pretty ok. Hate to think how they must see the world today.

To add, the bad guy is a rich guy trying to exploit people for profit or to get revenge for those that have wronged him.

The name of the car leaves little room for interpretation.

I was too young back then.

In hindsight, this show was a terrible idea.

Glorification of the Confederates and the protagonists called "the good old boys" would be instantaneously shut down and called out today for the racist white supremacist idea that it is.

It’s just a symbol of their heritage. Of white supremacy.

Yeah, hell, Sheriff Little, the black sheriff from the neighboring county was actually pretty competent. Yeah, it was mostly white, but the black people were always smarter than Roscoe or Boss Hogg.

I dont think op ever watched the show.

Surprisingly, when blacks were shown they were treated very well and as equals by the dukes. It almost had anti-racist undertones outside of the General Lee if watched closely.

He was leader in 1989. The first episode was in 1979, a decade earlier.

Dukes of Hazzard.

In addition, those shorts are still called daisy dukes (at least by my generation) in honor of Daisy there, laying on the flag.