“Smith's book stands as a seminal work that not only deepens our understanding of Black immigrant literacies but also provides invaluable insights for educators and policymakers seeking to create more inclusive and equitable learning environments.”
—Journal of Language and Literacy Education
“I feel like this book has given me a Black immigrant literacies lens. I now see how students who could speak English in diverse ways were often misclassified or silenced due to the delegitimization that occurs in school contexts…. It’s a transformative work that challenges conventional understanding of literacy, identity, and education, while also compelling us to reconsider our preconceptions about who multilingual students are.”
—Teachers College Record
“Smith offers valuable tools specifically beneficial to educators in urban settings grappling with the achievement gap…. Though Smith centers the literacies of Black immigrants, the framework’s alignment with multiliteracies concepts applies to supporting all students’ literacy practices.”
—The Urban Review
“Smith’s book is a resource that can transform instructional practices by equipping educators with the skills and knowledge in the field of literacy in supporting students from diverse backgrounds. The organization, style, and length of the book are appropriate for preservice and in-service teachers, and with the increase in the number of diverse students in K-12 education, this book is a “must-have” for literacy teachers.”
—Journal of Black Studies
“Presents a compelling vision and framework for reaching and teaching Black immigrant youth by explicitly attending to the intersections of race, culture, language, and migration.”
—Journal of Education for Multilingualism
“ Black Immigrant Literacies serves as both a scholarly work and a practical resource…. Smith equips educators, researchers, and policymakers with insightful tools to acknowledge the multi-layered challenges confronted by these students while actively fostering more equitable and culturally sustaining learning environments.”
—Caribbean Educational Research Journal
“Dr. Smith presents a well-researched framework that centralizes race in the education and literacies of Black immigrant youth in the United States and beyond…. She outlines strategies for supporting students of color, offering practical guidance for teachers, parents, and communities to actively engage in fostering students’ literacy development.”
—Critical Inquiry in Language Studies
“Smith proffers a nuanced and rigorously researched Black Immigrant Literacies framework to provide an avenue to centralize race in the teaching of Black immigrant youth, and to give them an opportunity to thrive….She speaks to every audience that has a role in the education of Black youth—teachers, parents, peers, community members, administrators, policymakers….This book invites you into the conversation with honesty, grace, and love.”
—From the Foreword by Shondel Nero, professor of language education, New York University
“In Black Immigrant Literacies, Dr. Patriann Smith masterfully reveals the unique and rich Black Englishes and literacies of Black Caribbean-originated youth. She addresses with courage various ethnoracially tinged tensions and myths pertaining to distinctive Black demographic groups in the United States, and ultimately offers educators and scholars a framework for working alongside all minoritized youth of color toward solidarity and racial justice.”
—Allison Skerrett, professor, The University of Texas at Austin
“Black Immigrant Literacies is one of the best books I have read on marginalized populations in the United States and the rapidly increasing population of immigrants. I can see myself going back to this book again and again, learning more each time I read it. You cannot leave this book without new insights about the nature of the colonial entanglements of race, language, and identity. It is well worth reading!”
—Patricia A. Edwards, professor, Michigan State University
“Patriann Smith’s Black Immigrant Literacies is an important new text that describes the theory, use, and implications of a novel instructional approach. This approach foregrounds the unique literacies of Black immigrant youth, and situates them as ‘raciosemiotic architects’ of a world that will embrace their aspirations in new ways. This is a must-read for educators who long for schooling that centers the assets of those who will help us realize a more just future.”
—Kathleen A. Hinchman, emeritus professor, Syracuse University
“For years teachers, educators, and policymakers have been perplexed by how to value and effectively leverage Black immigrant languages, literacies, and epistemologies in their classrooms. By drawing on authentic narratives of the language uses of Afro-Caribbean immigrant youth, this book provides research-based methods for educators, especially those working in monolingual-, monocultural-, and monoracial-dominant settings. The Black immigrant literacies framework will help teacher educators transcend barriers and model relations of solidarity among schools, parents, and nondominant communities. Black Immigrant Literacies, quite simply, is a guide for the linguistically, culturally, and racially perplexed.”
—Aria Razfar, professor of education and linguistics, University of Illinois Chicago
