That suggests this isn't really about "discourse" or "free speech" at all, but about something a lot more pedestrian: the anxiety of people who aren't used to having their speech and behavior policed by rules that aren't designed for their benefit, but now suddenly find themselves experiencing just that.
The backlash against identity politics is really about insecurity, Leong believes: Groups that have traditionally enjoyed high racial capital in America, such as white people and men, are aware that they are starting to lose their disproportionate control over power and resources, but also over less tangible things like public discourse.
Taken together, those two things make "identity politics" feel scary. The insecurity means there is an inflated sense of how much status and how many resources are being reallocated to traditionally less powerful groups, as well as fear about what that means for white people and men. A 2011 study, for instance, found that white people tended to see racism as a "zero-sum game" and to believe that racial bias against white people must be growing as bias against black people decreased.
