From Invisible, to Ho, to Magic: A Narrative Examination of the Ways that Literacies Disenfranchise and Empower Black Girls

Black girls are underrepresented in both educational research and classroom curricula, and those erasures carry serious societal consequences. Additionally, when researchers and educators incorporate topics related to race, gender, and sexuality with the intention of doing social justice work, they often unintentionally reify one-dimensional examinations of identities, such as examining race as separate from gender and sexuality, rather than viewing students and texts as multidimensional. This article, based on a three-year longitudinal study, considers the importance of intersectional approaches to literacy education, and the potential that intersectional New Literacies have for supporting Black girls and all students in more equitable and multifaceted academic and personal experiences.