The Australian flag is a relic of our racist past, and we haven't bothered to reclaim it.

Safe Schools founder Roz Ward, who was suspended by her employer, La Trobe University, for calling the flag "racist" in a Facebook post, clearly touched a nerve. But why are we so defensive of a symbol that we distance ourselves from?

A nation precedes a national flag. Our nation was spawned by the British Empire, supplanting or slaughtering some of the Aboriginal nations that were thriving. Our national symbol is predicated on a now discredited theory – that Australia was terra nullius. White settlers viewed Indigenous Australians as inferior. How else can you look a human being in the eye and deny their existence?

The British did not recognise any system governing Indigenous Australians akin to their own, and concluded that there was no government at all. They looked at a race and declared themselves superior.

This is racism. This is the way that the national flag, in its current iteration, was born. The racist history of our flag cannot be denied.

Despite all that, the flag is here now. Symbols have meaning, but that meaning can change over time. Australians could embrace our flag, reconcile ourselves with its racist history and give it new life. Instead, we have folded. The flag has been set aside.

Think about it – where do you see the flag in modern Australia? It flies high above houses of Parliament around Australia. But so too does the Aboriginal flag. Even the rainbow flag has been seen flying above Spring Street.

Government institutions may persist, but most ordinary Australians experience a cultural cringe at the thought of winching the thing up to full-mast.

Most of our great sporting sides have eschewed the flag in favour of green and gold. The marketers of Aussie icons are split down the middle: Weetbix sticking to red and blue, Milo and VB embracing the green and gold. Stubby-holders would surely be hard to call.

The only times I come across our flag anywhere near an actual Australian human are Australia Day, and any given day that the media covers an anti-Muslim riot. The only flag-wielding Australians left are drunken youths boorishly celebrating Australia Day, and Reclaim Australia.

Our hesitance to plaster our walls and our cheeks with our national symbol may reflect an acceptance that the flag is in bad taste. Or perhaps we just haven't bothered to rally around the flag because we know its time is limited. A republic is inevitable. And then the Union Jack will have to go, too.

We haven't saved the flag from its racist past because we are happy to put our feet up, crack a beer and wait for a future referendum to deal with it for us. There is no point in targeting those who point out the racism tied up in our flag. Let's blame our famed laidback attitude for failing to do anything about it.

The racist history of our flag cannot be denied