To the pure all things are pure.

This is the official flag of the Black Country.  Can't say it does a lot for me, but it was the winning design of a (then) 12-year-old girl and the colours were inspired by the description of the Black Country by an American in the mid-1800s as "black by day and red by night" - a reference to the black smoke covering the area by day, and the red glow of all the furnaces at night.  And then, one of the major industries of the area was chain-making, and so you can follow the young girl's thinking.  All very innocent, yes?  Well, there are those who take pleasure in twisting things to fit their own agenda, and a local equal rights campaigner has called the flag "offensive" because the use of the chain motif carries implications of the slave-trade and oppression generally.  Well, I suppose you see what you want to see, and his comments probably tell us more about him and his mindset than they do about the flag.  I prefer to see it though the young girl's eyes as she intended it to be.