There is a tendency in much of the United States to look at the heritage of racist hatred and oppression as a Southern problem – as an issue in the distant past or at least one confined to the old Confederacy. This allows us to wash our hands of any contribution to that oppression and excuse our own friends and neighbors for their racism while feeling smug and superior. It’s convenient, but it’s not at all in line with reality.

This week’s news has been dominated by the violent results of a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia organized by White Nationalists and attended by Neo-Confederates, Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, and racist bigots of all stripes. In line with that smug superiority, the reaction among many of those outside the Deep South has been shouts of “not my country” and “this isn’t us.” It makes us feel better. It’s also a lie. Racist hatred is not a problem unique to the South.

Charlottesville is not some far-right fascist Mecca. It is a fairly typical mid-sized American city. It is a college town, home to the University of Virginia, and in that respect, not especially dissimilar from Athens, Ohio, Ann Arbor, Michigan, or Bloomington, Indiana. In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton won the entire state of Virginia, but in Albemarle County, of which Charlottesville is the county seat, she won by more than 24 points.

The people who attended this rally are not the Southern caricatures that some would like to imagine. They are not the men from Duck Dynasty or the Dukes of Hazzard. They came from all over the United States to lift the fasces, wave the confederate flag, and offer Nazi salutes and chants. James Fields, who is being charged with murder of a counter-protester after driving his car into her protest traveled from Maumee, Ohio. He isn’t a Southerner. He lives just across Lake Erie from Canada. You can’t get much farther north. Peter Cvjetanovic, the young white nationalist whose torch-lit screaming photograph spread across the internet traveled to Charlottesville from Reno, Nevada. The rally happened in the South, but because of American racist hatred, not some unique Southern variety.

As Americans, we bear a collective responsibility for what happened in Charlottesville and what happens every day in every city, town, and neighborhood in the United States. All across the country white people earn more money, are more likely to be hired for a given job, and they have greater access to better education. This is not just some Jim Crow Era past in another place, it’s here and now.

The racist agitators will tell you that this is all about “white guilt,” misplaced remorse for the sins of people long dead. On the contrary – guilt is about how you feel. No one cares whether you feel bad about slavery. This is not about guilt, but  responsibility – responsibility for the present condition of this country: a country where Nazis and Klan members can brazenly express their vile ideology without so much as a white hood because they have no fear of social repercussions. Responsibility gives an opportunity take action. Speak out, object to the racist ideas expressed by your family, neighbors, or coworkers. Donate to organizations opposing the rise of Nazism and white supremacy. Most importantly, vote for candidates who actively work against racism, not those who offer mealy-mouthed objections while voting in support of a president who courts white supremacists and keeps actual Nazis on his staff.

This rally from its inception to its violent result was an act of terrorism, designed to intimidate liberals, academics, immigrants, Jewish people – anyone who might oppose their racist Nazi agenda. The torches, the chanting, the signs and the Nazi salutes – all of this was done consciously and deliberately. A liberal college town was not chosen by coincidence. They are terrorists. The first President in the 21st century and the previous Republican to occupy the White House had some words on this topic: “You’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists.”