The way they treated the flag on the car

At the time, I thought the angle they took with the confederate flag on top of the car was really weird. Why not just leave it up there and not even mention it? Now, of course, I'm not from the south. I truly didn't think that the reactions in the movie were realistic. Obviously since then, and even more so now, it's clear that they took an approach that was pretty spot on. I don't think they could have done it any better.