Latinx Translingual Literacies as Resistance: Combatting Epistemic Racism at School

• In Event: Language as Resistance: Empowering Students Through Translingual, Transnational, and Multimodal Pedagogies

Abstract

Translingual identities transcend multiple languages and cultural allegiances. Translingual students face epistemic racism, often manifested in interactions with school stakeholders driven by racist monolingual and monocultural ideologies. Framed by Raciolinguistics and New Literacy Studies, this paper presents findings from an investigation into the characteristics of delegitimizing stakeholders who perpetuate epistemic racism and the ways in which translingual students respond. Data collected from critical focus groups, semi-structured and art-based interviews, and emplaced observations revealed two key findings. First, various school stakeholders with distinct features epitomize epistemic racism through ideological discourses. Second, Translingual students resist through a novel concept the author coined Transresistance, enacted through resisting transliteracies. Theoretical, research, and practical implications of the findings and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Author

• Madji Fall, Kean University