THE AMERICAN REDOUBT AND THE COYOLXAUQUI IMPERATIVE: Dismembering America through Whiteness, Remembering America with Gloria Anzaldúa

The American Redoubt is a practice of embodied whiteness wherein adherents who share a common notion of purity enact their physical and economic privilege by self-segregating from people they deem polluted and morally inferior. Here, MacMullan argues that the Redoubt is not just an unethical response to political problems and an impractical survival strategy. It is a symptom of our nation's long festering chronic spiritual illness: habitual white racism that threatens to destroy any hope of community among the peoples of the Americas. It also signifies that the Americas are in a Janus moment: we can delve deeper into the terrible violence born of separation and ignorance or embrace the hope that we might finally know and love our many selves and create a greater union.