1. The Africans who were brought to America in 1619 were not enslaved in the US.
It is commonly written that they were, even by publications that should know better, (I’m looking at you, The Root) but there were no laws enforcing slavery in 1619. Race based chattel slavery in the US evolved. Painfully quickly, but still the laws developed over the course of decades.
I think that this is important because the pernicious idea that Africans were *always* enslaved in the US lessens the responsibility of the American leaders who took conscious steps to strip the humanity from a people while at the same time developing the philosophy that all men are created equal and have the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
2. People who say, “Life isn’t fair.” as an excuse to be an asshole.
Life isn’t fair because of tornadoes and earthquakes. Life isn’t fair due to lightening strikes, freak accidents, and random diseases. But people saying, “Life isn’t fair,” are rarely talking about these things. Instead they are saying it to justify their own, usually selfish, actions. They say it to justify something they know to be wrong or just to avoid an uncomfortable experience.
I’m as hypocritical as the next person so I get why someone may want to indulge, to avoid confrontation, to simply avoid the cost of doing the right thing. But saying that it’s because life isn’t fair is bullshit.
3. Reverse racism. Not only is there no such thing as reverse racism the phrase itself is racist. It implies that racism is only properly aimed by white people towards nonwhite people and ethnicities. Anyone can be a bigot and we all have prejudices. When a white person meets a nonwhite bigot who is prejudiced against white people it is not the reverse of the natural order of things.
4. Soldiers do not die for a flag. The flag is just a symbol. They kill and die fighting to protect what the flag stands for, including the freedom to dissent. Suggesting they died for a flag is nothing less than nationalistic jingoism.
5. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. You are entitled to your opinion. But that does not mean your opinion is entitled to respect. I do not I owe you the grace of listening to you debate my humanity. You are not owed an audience to hear your argument supporting oppression. And freedom of speech means the government cannot punish you. It does not mean that the words we speak are free from consequence.
6. Despite what is promulgated in mass media, in the US you are not entitled to half of your spouse’s worldly goods should you divorce. First of all, only in community property states does the law typically consider assets acquired during a marriage to be the property of both spouses. Out of fifty states only nine are community property states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin with Alaska giving both parties the option to make their property community property.
Even in community property states only assets accrued during the marriage are community property. You marry someone who is already rich, that money is theirs unless they place it into the community property. Gifts and inheritances received by one spouse during the marriage are also separate property. A fact that makes movies like Intolerable Cruelty by the Coen brothers particularly egregious- especially as all divorces in California are no fault.
The fact that Hollywood is in California and most of the stuff coming out of Hollywood is produced by the wealthy to rich skews the information they put out there. Basically, despite what Kanye West says, it’s actually pretty hard to be a gold digger.