Everyone knows when you hear a word like swamp or wetlands, you think about Florida. At least, I do. I think about the World's Everglades - a space and place made famous in facts and fictions spanning the Age of Exploration when conquistadores like Ponce De León searched and slayed for the Fountain of Youth’s Agua de Vida… Water of Life! Through the development of commerce, government, and society in the not so distant American past, wetlands have been many things to many people, especially to those avoiding exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural dominance, and violence - what Iris Marion Young would summarize as The Five Faces of Oppression. This essay will illustrate that even as individuals grounded in science, education, and advocacy for the benefits of the community, environment, and human-wellbeing, there is still an ever-persistent wave of persecution and

oppression that is faced day in and day out, just as reliable as tides and as destructive as a storm surge which needlessly erodes our identity, agency, and culture. The hope will be that through this lens - this opportunity - words will raise awareness, awareness will engage action, actions will support change, change will push transformation, and transformations will bring about sustainable and new beginnings - not just full of words but the promises and truth of a better tomorrow, today! Not because I told you, but because all of us know deep down inside that incremental change only serves a few palates which can stomach the mediocrity and privilege.

Frantz Fanon said certain things need to be said if one is to avoid falsifying the problem; this quote has lit my path throughout many of my formative endeavors, informing me to always give back ground and never hold back. I am a first-generation non-traditional college graduate, Marine Corps combat veteran, Afro-Asian Hispanic. I received the opportunity to attend college after serving eight years in the military fighting enemies of our construct of freedom. Many ask me why I didn’t go to college after high school. No one told me I could! Don't get confused - people told me plenty of times I wasn’t strong, smart, wealthy, fast enough for one thing or another. It seemed like people would judge me based on my weight, style, or views. I felt - and to some degree, still do - people detracting from my abilities, competencies, and passion, reducing them (and me) due to a lack of pedigree or breeding. Fortunately for me, the Marine Corps wasn’t looking at the color of my skin or my family tree; they were looking For the Few and the Proud. 

I think all of us search for a place to belong, a space where you will be accepted, included, listened to, and told that you will be able to accomplish great things for the community you serve and ultimately yourself. I continued to serve my community after combat in many other uniforms from Sales/Marketing, Technology Repair, Veterinary Medicine, Research, Husbandry, Law Enforcement, Warehouse Management, and Construction to name a few. Some of those uniforms I wore frequently for a few years, holding three jobs at once until I found a friend that said I should try being a student again. My first inclination was, a student? Of what ? I always wanted to be a veterinarian, but I was too old to start then, right?! Almost a decade later - and tons more people telling me I wasn’t good enough or the right fit - I have earned five degrees and twelve professional certifications in support of a growing and robust effort to be a strong interdisciplinary researcher, educator, and advocate. Today I am a third-year doctoral student seeking to fill gaps in understanding what the intersection of environmental and social justice looks like for underrepresented learners through the lens of STEM education. 

This complex trajectory has demonstrated to me that, just like in nature, pathways and trails have belonged to and continue to serve the privileged. Nature, like all of our professional and educational spaces, locally and abroad, is colonized by one or all the Faces of Oppression, working independently or synergistically against a better tomorrow for all. Wetlands have no trails, their racialized memories are a little forgiving but racialized nonetheless. People, families, communities, and cultures who face physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual systemic persecution always have to work twice as hard for half of anything. Wetlands across the world show how brave oppressed people are to persist in unpredictable places and spaces because the representation of color or views was unpalatable and therefore untenable by polite society.

Society… we demand more in 2020 and perhaps as a result of 2020. Decolonizing nature and other landscapes doesn’t mean eradicating existing histories, but it needs to focus on elevating all histories to the same heights and awareness - no matter the discomfort or proximity. Changing the narrative will breed discontent and disharmony among subverters, subjugators, colonizers and oppressors alike, whether inadvertently or directly as the purveyors of injustice. 

This dichotomous identity that they have developed for us - this sense of otherness - is not and should not be framed as an antagonist, but as transformative and rooted in hopefulness. When we revolt, it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe. You see, it has always been difficult to be cast as the other, the piece that doesn’t fit, something not deserving, just a thing… an object to be dealt with. How painful and sorrowful it has been lately to belong on paper but never really be accepted in truth. I am more than my identity and personality, more than the various ways those elements are perceived and misconstrued by anyone unwilling to understand the histories. I have spent a large portion of my life being treated as an invasive species and now all I ever wonder is if I am just a critically endangered species that faces extirpation without truly knowing where in the ecosystem I ever belonged?

...I have suffered just like you, in such deafening silence as pieces of me are taken out by the tide. I was always told what I should do instead of being told that I could do anything. Please know you belong. Let me be the first to tell you, or maybe remind you, that you can do

ANYTHING. Where we can go, there aren’t any trails or pathways yet, and I hate to say it, but the privilege is in doing the work because no one else will. Every day is a new day to do and be better than we were yesterday, developing a brighter tomorrow, today! While erosion occurs, it will not be at the cost of our life’s depositions contributions, impacts, and legacies.

#BlackinWetlands #BlackPhD #HispanicScholar #GreenLatino #BlackinNature  #EnvironmentalJustice #thewretchedoftheearth #SWS #StudentofSWS#HispanicHeritage #USMCVeteran

David Riera is pursuing a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at Florida International University in Miami, FL. His research seeks to understand the mechanisms of development of a science identity through STEM environmental and agricultural education, especially in underserved communities. He is also the Student Section Chair and Founder, and serves on the boards and advisory councils of several professional and scientific societies.