Towards an Understanding of Black Girls’ Digital Activism: What the Black Girls’ Literacy Framework Reveals About the Digital Literacy Practices of Adolescent Black Girls

This qualitative study explored the digital literacy practices of adolescent Black girls who actively engaged on social media in the aftermath of the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. I employ intersectionality and the Black Girls’ Literacies (BGL) framework (Haddix & Muhammad, 2016) to analyze six qualitative interviews I conducted with adolescent Black girls who avidly used video sharing social media during that time. The data analysis aligned with the following components of the BGL Framework: Black girls’ literacies are intellectual, political, and critical. Moreover, the data analysis also revealed that Black girls espoused two different identities while using social media to address anti-Black violence. These themes were: Crafting Digital Narratives of the Self as Educators and Crafting Digital Narratives of the Self as Digital Activists. The study concludes with national, district-wide, and schoolwide recommendations for policy to improve the teaching and learning of adolescent Black girls.