A crowd full of white faces. Four fingers raised to the sky. A Confederate flag. Cardboard signs over people’s heads. Pale faces illuminated by the glow of orange torches. Chants turn to screams. Jostling turns to fighting. The conflict started over the removal of the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee has escalated into violent racial conflicts.

It is a familiar scene, one that feels like it belongs in 1933 or 1967, but it is also one that could be seen at the Unite the Right meeting in 2017.

History should be an upward slope, but it feels like we are going downwards, rehashing the same wars. After all, the Confederate flag is a symbol of the losing side of a war that ended in 1865.While it is true that we should not erase history, we shouldn’t keep reliving it either.

There is an intrinsic context to the Confederate flag now (and always). History does not exist in a vacuum but rather has culminated into the present day. Students are conditioned to think of racism as something of the past, but people of color are still disproportionately affected by poverty, discrimination, and violence.

The Confederate flag wasn’t an especially prominent item during the Civil War. In fact, it conveniently started to pick up steam at the same time the Civil Rights Movement was taking off.

“Once the Dixiecrats got a hold of it as a matter of defiance against their Democratic colleagues in the north and the African Americans in their midst, then the Confederate battle flag took on a new life, or a second life.” Historian David Goldfield said.

There is a clear cultural and ideological divide between the North and the South, reminiscent of the Civil War and the events leading up to it. The prominence of the Confederate flag is a reminder that our country is divided, and the celebration of it is a dismissal of the importance of our union. In order to move forward, relics like this need to be left in the past.

Despite a state of emergency being called in Virginia and thousands of outcries and denouncements on social media and other platforms, The Unite the Right meeting was a successful outing for the far right. White supremacy has made itself known to all, especially to those who do not fit into the mold it upholds. They received the media coverage they were looking for, and promises are already being made to strike again.

Is it erasing history to stop embracing a symbol of slavery and disunion? Or is it erasing history to pretend that it represents “heritage, not hate?”

Not everyone who wields the Confederate flag is a white supremacist. Some people genuinely consider it a symbol of Southern pride. But the American people should unite under one flag.

The Confederate flag means different things to different people. These different meanings need to be reconciled. The Confederate flag is anti-black and anti-American. The country needs to come together to recognize it as a part of our tumultuous past and reject it as a part of our bright and promising future.