“STATE’S RIGHTS”? — NAH…IT WAS ABOUT SLAVERY
The Confederacy did not fight for abstract “states’ rights.” That claim is a deliberate lie, crafted to obscure the brutal truth: the Civil War was fought to defend slavery, to perpetuate a system of terror in which human beings were owned, bought, and sold. Every argument about states’ rights was in service of maintaining the bondage of Black people, and the insistence on enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act proves it. The Confederacy demanded that Northern states comply with the return of those fleeing slavery—not for principle, not for justice, but for the continuation of white supremacy. There was nothing noble in this; it was hatred codified into law, oppression celebrated as statecraft.
And yet today, in Mississippi, we witness a bitter irony. Lawmakers and citizens who celebrate Confederate history and claim fidelity to “states’ rights” have now surrendered those same rights when it comes to federal immigration enforcement. The Mississippi Legislature has moved to force local governments and law enforcement to comply fully with federal authorities in removing immigrants, stripping cities, counties, and agencies of any discretion. The same people who once argued that states should be free to govern themselves—to protect their sovereignty even in rebellion—now demand that local authorities obey federal dictates to target and remove people they do not want. The principle of states’ rights is invoked selectively, only when it suits the defense of white supremacy; when it does not, it is abandoned without hesitation.
This is not merely irony—it is hypocrisy on full display. The Confederacy was racist, violent, and cruel, and its defenders now are willing to surrender autonomy to federal power in the pursuit of exclusion and control. To celebrate the Confederacy while simultaneously abandoning local sovereignty reveals that “states’ rights” were never about liberty or justice, but about enforcing oppression. Mississippi’s current legislation only underscores this truth: principle is meaningless when it conflicts with prejudice.
America should confront the Confederacy with the same moral clarity that Germany confronted Nazism. Its symbols, its myths, and its historical memory should be removed from public honor, buried in the forgetfulness of a nation committed to confronting its past. The Confederacy thrived on hatred, terror, and the denial of human dignity, and that truth cannot be sanitized, excused, or romanticized. To do otherwise is to allow the ghost of racism to linger under the guise of tradition.
History is not negotiable. Morality is not optional. The Confederacy was evil. Its cause was indefensible. Its modern defenders, whether in nostalgia or legislation, are either blind to its horror or complicit in its legacy of oppression. And the Mississippi Legislature’s willingness to strip local authority to enforce federal immigration policy today is a stark reminder: the same people who once claimed states’ rights to defend slavery will abandon it without conscience to target those they do not welcome. That is the truth of selective principle, hypocrisy, and racialized power—and it cannot be ignored.
BDD
