diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sec-policy/selinux-base/selinux-base-2.20200818-r2.ebuild b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sec-policy/selinux-base/selinux-base-2.20200818-r2.ebuild
index c660017ef1..17d06e1149 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sec-policy/selinux-base/selinux-base-2.20200818-r2.ebuild
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sec-policy/selinux-base/selinux-base-2.20200818-r2.ebuild
@@ -31,7 +31,11 @@ RDEPEND=">=sys-apps/policycoreutils-2.8
 	>=sys-apps/checkpolicy-2.8
 "
 DEPEND="${RDEPEND}"
-BDEPEND="sys-devel/m4"
+# flatcar: BDEPEND on python3[xml] - normally pulled in through policycoreutils
+# but we made that dep conditional on USE=python
+BDEPEND="sys-devel/m4
+    >=dev-lang/python-3[xml]
+"
 
 
 # flatcar changes
@@ -81,11 +85,7 @@ src_configure() {
 
 	# Prepare initial configuration
 	cd "${S}/refpolicy" || die
-	# Parallel make fails with:
-	#   python3 -t -t -E -W error support/sedoctool.py -b policy/booleans.conf -m policy/modules.conf -x doc/policy.xml
-	#   support/sedoctool.py exiting for: Error while parsing xml
-	#   make: *** [Makefile:415: conf.intermediate] Error 1
-	emake -j1 conf
+	emake conf
 
 	# Setup the policies based on the types delivered by the end user.
 	# These types can be "targeted", "strict", "mcs" and "mls".