In the blistering heat of the summer of 2004, my uncle left Chicago and moved to Harford County. Years later, he told me the story of his first experience here. He was stopped at a red light, nearly home, and in front of him was a giant pick-up truck at least four feet off the ground with metal mufflers on either side. He had never seen anything like it, but it wasn’t until the light turned green and the truck roared to life that he got his biggest surprise: his puny Honda Accord was submarined by two massive Confederate flags that flapped in the wind like the wings of an angry bird.

The Confederate flag seems to have deviated from its original meaning and, to much uproar, has become a symbol of pure-blooded, born and raised Americans and their freedom. It stands tall, proclaiming “the U.S.A is my country!”

Of course, one quick history lesson would teach even the firmest believer what the flag initially stood for. Seven slave states in the deep South seceded from the United States during the Civil War to form the Confederacy. It was a group of states controlled by a government literally based on owning another human being as property. When you know this fact, it’s pretty ridiculous for anybody to still support the Confederate flag as a symbol of American freedom. The flag is as anti-American as it gets. It was created to go against the United States and the changes being made to abolish slavery. Had they succeeded, the Confederacy would be a rival of modern America, keeping minorities for their labor while we elected Barack Obama as president.

But many a time I have found that this is not in fact a matter of ignorance. Many people know exactly what the Confederacy stood for and what the flag meant, and they want to claim that again. It disgusts me that in the modern age, we still have people who agree with the Confederacy’s ideas.

In our nation’s history, slavery stands out as being among the worst things to have occurred. The repercussions of this oppression and disregard for basic human rights are still being faced today. Americans were so convinced that they were destined for this land that they didn’t think twice about throwing everybody else under the bus.

Do not forget that this kind of arrogance is exactly what founded “modern America” in the first place. Natives to the land were forcefully removed, assimilated, and segregated to assure that the European settlers got what they wanted.

To revisit the story about my uncle, his first reaction to his encounter was fear. Even as a child, his ethnicity caused a divide between him and his peers. For the first five years of his life, he could not speak a single word of English. He still struggled with it until his early teenage years, where he was still scrutinized because of his dark Italian complexion and giant mess of black curls. There was no denying his background; he was the son of two young immigrants, fresh off the boat from Italy. Despite being born in New York, he was raised on the notion that he was not a true American.

For people of color, children of immigrants such as my uncle and father, and new immigrants to America today, the Confederate flag is a fear-evoking image of oppression and inferiority to their American superiors. It’s important that now, in 2014, we remember the independence for all that America is supposed to stand for and put our confederate flags to rest.