Mirage: noun, Webster Definition:

“something that comes from or exists only in the mind and is not real”

Aspirationally intended by many as a helpful and seemingly harmless ideal that is metaphorically communicated in ways such as ideals of the “Melting pot, or cultural colorblindness, etc.” Assimilation represents “the process by which a group or individual learns and adopts the characteristics of a dominant culture, becoming indistinguishable from other members of that society” https://www.britannica.com/ .

Assimilation has historically manipulated and clandestinely married itself to the ideology of Hegemony, which is best described as “the dominance of one group over another, often through the use of ideas and norms to legitimize that dominance.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/ . Therefore, it is easy to see why Assimilation has been far from helpful in the cause of racial justice. Assimilation, through bias, oppression, privilege, and supremacy, has helped to maintain its mirage of the so-called natural order of society perpetrated to buttress Systemic Racism.  

In March, Three-Fifths Magazine explores Assimilation, history, the present reality, and future ramifications as the Mirage presses forward into the 21st century.