I have an American flag hanging on my wall at home. I keep it there for a few reasons; one, which I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, I’m practically half-American anyway, and I might as well fly the colors of the nation I love; two, the colors blend nicely into my living-room; and three, because I side with the ideals of the United States of America and I choose to represent those ideals in the way I try to live my life.

I once tried to get a Swedish flag to hang right next to it. I thought it would be a nice touch to have the Swedish and American flags hanging side-by-side, celebrating both our common ideals and values, and at the same time honoring the differences and the diversity of our cultures.

But as soon as I happened to tell my Mom about my idea, she immediately criticized it strongly. She drew links to the neo-nazi and racial movement in Sweden; and I’ve had more people tell me the same thing. I once displayed the Swedish flag as a wallpaper on my computer, and my former CEO told me that he immediately associated it with nazis. So that is how far we have come: We have come to associate flying our flag and our blue and yellow colors with racism and hatred towards foreigners.

I asked one of my friends why this was; why Americans can fly their flag without comment, while we Swedes can’t. “Because America is founded on principles and ideals, whereas the Swedish culture is based on nationality and ancestry” was his reply.

But I disagree with this notion. The sheer number of immigrants in our nation forces us to ask the question: What does it mean to be Swedish? What gives anyone the right to fly the Swedish colors with pride and joy? Perhaps we need to redefine ourselves.

As a culture, we share a past. We have existed as a nation for practically a thousand years. And while the early beginnings of Sweden is rather clouded in uncertainty and haze, it is clear that we’ve been developing a common history for a long, long time. Our culture is full of Swedish expressions: Our kings and royalties, our common values and ideals, our respect towards nature. It is full of red country cottages and white churches. It is full of schoolchildren singing “Den sommartid nu kommer” before summer. And yet through the constant, it has also been changing, never standing still, always developing in response to the changing world outside our borders. For the longest time we’ve been unharmed by wars and terrors, and yet we’ve changed, grown and developed.

Now we stand in other, different times. The world is getting smaller; the European Union is tying the nations of Europe together; computers break the static borders and introduce their own. People move between countries, travel the world, and immigrants establish a safe home within our nation, learn our language and become part of our society and our politics.

Why can’t I be proud of this nation, that has sought peace for so long and harbored so many refugees from outside? Why is it so difficult for us to be proud of who we are and what we’ve done – not with any disrespect towards any other culture, nationality, race or creed – but to celebrate what makes us Swedish? People who come here ask us why we are embarrassed over our nationality. For one thing, we are the only nation in the world, who as our national flag carry a cross of gold against the clear blue heavens. (Yes, the color is actually defined to be gold and not yellow.) Why are we embarrassed at that?

And so our colors have been hijacked by radical, nationalist elements. We really ought to take it back.

Perhaps it was a mistake to stand outside World War II. For all the remarkable peace we were given, maybe we lost something more: The understanding of why it’s important to fight for our ideals and our cultural identity. Not that I wish it, but had our nation suffered under the heavy nazi boot, maybe we would understand a little better why flying our flag still – despite our troubles – matters.