Definitely agree on the "Europe is just racist in a different way." Outside of the obvious ones (like Middle East & Africa), I'd also add racism/xenophobia against "Eastern" Europe (like Poland), which might surprise Americans because they're still white.
... just pass on the mother's name to your children? Eventually it matters as much as that your ancestor was a smith. (and that's besides the "not everyone wants to lose their name on marrying" point)
“Male”/“Female” is on the sex side, based purely on things like reproductive organs, chromosomes and hormones.
Not really, I don't think. They're just the adjectives where woman/man are the nouns. If you talk about a male coworker I assume he's a man, not that you checked his birth certificate.
Oil companies get targeted all the time, but it's mostly the protests that affect many people that make it to the news