Supporting Black Immigrant Youth Identity Navigation by Amplifying Their Voices Through Multiliteracy Practices and Platforms

• In Event: Invisible No Longer: Understanding the Experiences of Black Immigrants in the U.S. Educational Landscape

Abstract

Despite the sustained increase of Black immigration to the US, Black immigrant youth (BIY) are to a great degree invisible and/or (mis)represented within the dominant discourses (Bryan, 2020; Smith, 2020; Ukpokodu, 2018). BIY stand at the crossroads of being Black, a construct that is shared with African Americans, and immigrant, a construct largely crafted by discourse in the US to evoke corresponding ideas of Hispanic ethnicity (Cooper, 2020). As such, BIY’s intersectional identity in these spheres has led to single-story (Adichie, 2009) experiences of essentialization, stereotyping, and/or negation where they are often positioned by a single aspect of their identities, rather than being able to articulate all of who they are and who they are becoming. I explored these discourses about BIY by conducting a scoping literature review (Mak & Thomas, 2022; Munn et al., 2018) to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the single stories about identity that BIY encounter in the US? (2) In what ways do BIY navigate these narratives? (3) What strategies have researchers explored so far that support BIY in their navigation of these discourses? The inclusion/exclusion criteria for the research protocol specified studies conducted in the United States about first-generation Black immigrant youth in K-12 settings. The search strategy targeted Google Scholar and EBSCOhost using keywords related to Black immigrant youth, literacy, identity, and digital literacy. In total, 73 articles were sourced, 63 of which remained after applying the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Each article was coded on MAXQDA through a process of abduction (Timmermans & Tavory, 2012). I used a priori codes based on Gee’s (2009) theory of identity, while also leaving room for other emergent themes. Findings reveal that BIY intersectional identities have led to them being positioned by essentializing Big-D societal discourses (Omogun & Skerret, 2021; Smith, 2020), institutional discourses, focusing on the institution of school (Callahan et al., 2020; Smith, 2021; Terry, 2023), and affinity discourses (Jones-Obeng, 2021; Kumi-Yeboah et al., 2021). However, the research also demonstrates that BIY have been drawing on various forms of multiliteracies as a means of navigating these discourses and inserting their voices into the Conversation surrounding who they are and who they are becoming (Omogun & Skerret, 2021; Smith, 2022). These literacy practices often engage a transnational approach (Kumi-Yeboah & Smith, 2016; McLean, 2020) that allows BIY to draw upon their local and global contexts to create a sort of hybrid identity for themselves. The emphasis on transnationalism in navigating discourses has much implication for research on digital literacy platforms as a means of creating space, within the classroom and in out-of-school settings, where the local and global can intersect as BIY navigate their identity narratives. While some research is already being done in this area (Braden, 2020; Kumi-Yeboah & Smith, 2016; Smith, 2022) there is room for more research to be done in exploring various types of digital literacy platforms and the ways in which they may support the amplification of BIY in the dominant Discourses about their identities.

Author

• Neisha Terry Young, Stony Brook University - SUNY