SCRAP Reflection
by Dylan Fink for Dr. Joshua King's ENGL 4365: Literature and Environmental Justice Class, Fall 2025
Welcome
Before taking this literature and environmental justice class, I thought of the environment as something separate from everyday human life. Such aspects as protecting forests, oceans, or distant climate statistics were nearly the only thing that existed in my mind in relation to environmental justice. I did not yet understand how deeply environmental conditions are tied to systems of inequality or how harm is unevenly distributed across communities. Near the midpoint of the semester as we learned about environmental justice and more specifically environmental racism, I began to see how prevalent such causes were. Everyday environments are shaped by human decisions, policies, and histories that determine whose lives are protected and whose are neglected. This realization challenged me to rethink what counts as an “environmental issue” and who is most affected by it.
Reflection
One of the most influential ideas introduced in the course was the concept of Refugia. The ever-present pockets of life that persist amid environmental and social damage were something my eyes were awakened to this semester. Through our engagement with SCRAP and local environmental justice initiatives, I learned that refugia are not only ecological spaces but also social and cultural ones. They are places where care, resilience, and community are cultivated in the face of neglect. This idea stayed with me when I visited Urban Reap, a local community gardening center here in Waco, Texas, where abstract concepts from the classroom became tangible through hands on work with elements of the environment
At Urban Reap, my task was to clear brush and remove weeds. Initially, I approached the work with a familiar assumption having grown up working on my family’s ranch in west Texas. I grew up always being taught that weeds are unwanted and should be thrown away. Instead, I was surprised to learn that many of the plants we removed were intentionally relocated to areas where they could grow without overtaking other plants. These weeds were not seen as disposable but rather they were simply growing in the wrong place. This act of relocation changed how I understood value within an ecosystem.
As I worked with amongst the plants, I thought back to our discussions of environmental racism and unequal urban environments. Authors like Robert Bullard helped me understand this semester how low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to pollution, heat, and environmental hazards. I began to realize that these neighborhoods are often described using language that mirrors how weeds are discussed. Language such as blighted, undesirable, or in need of removal envelop modern conversations about underdeveloped neighborhoods in urban regions. The experience at Urban Reap made this comparison impossible for me to ignore. Just as weeds are blamed for disrupting a garden, marginalized communities are blamed for problems they did not create, rather than being supported as vital parts of a city ecosystem.
Our readings in Under the Feet of Jesus further reinforced this connection. Helena María Viramontes illustrates how migrant farmworkers endure toxic environments while remaining invisible to the systems that rely on their labor. These communities, like weeds, survive in harsh conditions and are told to disappear quietly even though their presence sustains the larger system. At Urban Reap I witnessed a different ethic, one that valued resilience and sought flourishing rather than erasure.
This perspective aligned with our unit on urban gardening and greening where we studied how green spaces function as sites of justice, resistance, and healing. Gardens are not just aesthetic improvements but are forms of refugia that restore dignity and access to nourishment. Urban Reap embodied this vision by treating even the most overlooked plants with intention and care. It showed me that healthy environments depend on diversity and attention, not exclusion.
Ultimately, this class transformed how I see cities, environments, and the people within them. Cities are living ecosystems, and when certain lives are treated as something to be removed rather than nurtured, the entire system suffers. Urban Reap taught me that flourishing comes not from eliminating what seems inconvenient, but from practicing relocation and respect. Through the class texts, hands-on work, and creative expression, this course moved me to recognize that environmental justice begins with valuing all forms of life and creating spaces where they are allowed to grow.
Creative Invitation
Introduction
As part of this final refugia project, I wrote the song “Weeds.” Writing this song allowed me to creatively process such ideas of weeds being a metaphor for environmental racism. Writing the song became a way to give emotional voice to the themes we explored throughout the semester. In the lyrics, weeds symbolize people who are forced to survive in neglected urban spaces through the images of cracked sidewalks, extreme heat, and indifference. These weeds though continue to grow anyway. The song reflects the pain of being treated as disposable while also affirming resilience, belonging, and community. Through music, I was able to express the idea of refugia as something living and defiant, emerging even in damaged spaces.
Weeds
They grow where there seems to be nobody who cares
In the city cracks with no attention or looking back
Fighting to get by reaching the least sunlight
Whenever breaking through the bigger ones say we don’t care about you
Why must we be treated poorly as a weed
In the city streets suffering through this harm and heat
It hurts to get put down by the place I call my town
Always forced to flee as a disgraced growing weed
It’s not bad to be a strong and fighting weed
You try to put me down but I will still break through the ground
Remind you this my home again and can’t get rid of my friends
I refuse to be treated poorly like a weed
I find strength today in the power of this place
Someday surrounding me will be new beautiful green
Groundbreaking growth of weeds
Works Consulted
Bullard, Robert D. Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots. South End Press, 1993.
Gay, Ross. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015.
SCRAP (Sustainable Community and Regenerative Agriculture Project). Baylor University, https://eh.artsandsciences.baylor.edu/.
Urban Reap. Urban Reap Community Gardens, Waco, Texas.
Viramontes, Helena María. Under the Feet of Jesus. Penguin Books, 1995.