I’m Still Nigerian: Navigating Race Through Digital Literacies

Abstract

Literacy scholarship captures immigrant youth of color ethnoracial identity constructions through their digital literacy practices. Still, few studies examine how immigrant youth of African origin use digital literacy to navigate ethnoracial tensions and craft racialized identities. This study extends and nuances existing scholarship by examining the digital literacy practices and ethnoracial identity formations of a 13-year-old Nigerian immigrant girl. Positioning my analysis within the intersection of race, language, and identity, I inquire: How does Isioma leverage digital literacies to navigate U.S. racialization and negotiate U.S. racial identity categories? Furthermore, how does Isioma employ digital literacies to construct and negotiate her ethnoracial identities? I employ a narrative analysis of home observations, semistructured interviews, and literacy artifacts. Findings illustrate how digital tools disrupt raciolinguistic perspectives against minoritized languages. Digital literacies also enable the preservation of ethnic identities and languages while influencing racialized and hybrid identity formation and narration in the physical world.