It&#x27;s not about politeness; it&#x27;s about political power. In particular, the definition of &quot;polite&quot; is entirely asymmetric, with &quot;marginalized groups&quot; (basically, everyone but straight white males) given <i>carte blanche</i> to police others&#x27; speech and actions. In the case of Halloween costumes, you can see the asymmetry easily: a Native American man can dress as the Lone Ranger, but a white man can&#x27;t dress as Tonto. (More precisely, a white man complaining that it&#x27;s racist for a Native American to dress as the Lone Ranger would probably be ignored, and might even be called a racist himself.)<p>This has a rationalization, of course; it&#x27;s OK because straight white males perpetuate &quot;structural racism,&quot; imposing a &quot;heteropatriarchy&quot; on gays, women, and people of color. The practical result involves stripping power from straight white males and giving it to everyone else.<p>From an adaptive point of view, ripping off chunks of power and giving them to your supporters is a winning political formula. But pleasant nostrums about sticking up for the downtrodden are little more than a thin veneer over a good old-fashioned tribal throwdown.