The internet currently gives us more access to information than ever before. Unfortunately, it also serves as a vehicle for a guy you went to high school with to repeat stupid talking points he heard on cable news via social media. Here’s a “greatest hits” of misleading racist arguments you might see in comments sections and reasons why they must die.

1. “What about black on black crime?”

Why this is stupid

A. This probably wasn’t the issue being discussed, but thank you for your sudden concern for neighborhoods you’ve avoided for the last 40 years.

B. It’s possible to talk about two different social problems at the same time.

C. The vast majority of all murders take place within racial groups.

D. This is a variation of the “what was she wearing” argument raised when women are sexually assaulted. The idea that being a victim of criminal violence justifies being a victim of state violence is absurd. A dark feature of recent controversies has been the trend of putting black victims of police or vigilante violence on trial for their own deaths.

E. Racial statistics without any consideration of social class can be very misleading.

F. Police departments can and should be reformed through engagement with activists. Criminal organizations aren’t often concerned with the demands of the communities they terrorize.

G. There’s an array of anti-violence organizations operating in major cities across the United States. Just because you don’t know about them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

2. “Why can’t black people move up the social ladder like immigrants?”

Why this is stupid

A. Immigrants certainly face(d) great hardship and exclusion, but none have had to face the type of sustained state power seen under Jim Crow and the War on Drugs. It’s much easier to ride out a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment than to overcome a system that’s specifically engineered to perpetually hurt your interests.

B. Descendants of European immigrants benefited from government programs that excluded African Americans such as the G.I. Bill, which paid for higher education and granted access to cheap mortgages, allowing people to pass down some wealth to the next generation and enter the middle-class. Immigrants also gained access to labor unions at the height of American industrialization, while African Americans were banned from many of them. African Americans also had the misfortune of leaving the Jim Crow South for northern cities at the precise moment they were about to start losing their industrial base to outsourcing and automation.

C. Many European immigrant groups have steadily assimilated into whiteness and used anti-blackness as a tool for social mobility. A more recent manifestation of this talking point is meant to drive a wedge between African Americans and Asians.

D. A great many black people are doing quite well, thank you!

3. “Any straight white male is privileged.”

Why this is stupid

A. This ignores the way record economic inequality also hurts working-class white people.

B. Poor rural whites live in places with some of worst economic and social indicators in America.

C. Poor rural whites are often at a distinct disadvantage, because their suffering is located away from major media centers. Our media magnifies urban black hardship (sometimes to a fault), while largely ignoring similar circumstances facing people in small towns.

D. Broad-brush terms like this can be used to silence dissent based on race/gender/sexuality alone, which is completely illiberal. It’s good to acknowledge historical and current examples of white privilege, but that shouldn’t be used for the types of generalizations progressives reject when applied to minorities.

4. “Calling Donald Trump a white supremacist is race baiting.”

Why this is stupid

5. “You have to choose between police or protesters.”

Why this is stupid

A. As a rule, binary logic shouldn’t be applied to complex issues.

B. Police departments differ from place to place, many do great work and others must change. Protests in one place shouldn’t be misconstrued as an attack on law enforcement as a whole.

C. It is possible to separate the actions of the worst members of a group from the collective. Not all cops are bad and it’s silly to label an entire protest movement based on individuals shouting something revolting.

D. You can be supportive of police officers, police reform and the rights of citizens to voice their opinions in a democracy, at the same time.

6. “The Civil War wasn’t about slavery.”

Why this is stupid

A. Saying this should be seen in the same vein as Holocaust denial. Here are the Articles of Secession. Southern leaders unequivocally stated they are seceding from the union to preserve the institution of African slavery, I believe them.