Explore how the social construct of race and racial oppression operates at multiple levels with a rotating focus on different social systems. Connect with Austin-area justice movement organizers and everyday people with relevant lived experience to lay out historical context, current affairs, and creative possibilities for a liberated future.
Hello, dear listener. You're tuned in to Racism on the Levels, interpersonal, organizational, cultural, and systemic levels we're creating that right now. My We're creating that right now. My name is Stacey Fraser. My pronouns are she and they.
Stacie Freasier:In addition to hosting this show, I am a proud mama, a Kenyan nonviolence trainer, and a racial equity facilitator. Racism on the Levels is part of the Reflections of Community Outreach Rotation, a collection that gives voice to coop community organization members, as well as folks doing great things in the greater Austin, Texas community. The views expressed on the show are not necessarily those of the coop board of directors, staff, volunteers, or underwriters. I create this show while dwelling on the sacred ancestral lands of the Tonkawa, Comanche, Lipan Apache, Sauna, and Humanos. I invite you to join me in acknowledging their inconceivable losses and attempted erasure due to violent settler colonialism.
Stacie Freasier:This show centers justice, and that requires connecting with ancestors and grounding in historical truth and accuracy. You can find the original stewards of the land you're on by visiting native hyphen land dot ca. Now let's dive
Stacie Freasier:in. Now let's dive in. I've got a really exciting guest, with me today, a fellow, Headwaters parent. Our kids are growing up together, and I'm gonna let you introduce yourself with your livelihood, Dave.
Dave Cortez:Hey. Thanks for having me. Headwaters' parent and avid advocate and defender of public schools and education in Texas, something I hope we all can be these days. My name is Dave Cortez. My pronouns are he and him.
Dave Cortez:I'm a organizer, Chicano, Frontera, born and raised, but now living in South Austin, ancestral lands of the Lipan Apache, Coahuiltecan peoples, respectively. And I'm stoked to talk with you today. I've been organizing in Austin since about 2009, and before then in my hometown of El Paso, working on environmental justice issues. And now I work for the Sierra Club in Texas and do a range of, climate justice work, trying to build power in this horrific political environment that we're all in. But it's good to see you in in chat.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. Thank you for that. Thank you for devoting so many of your years in the in the fight for justice here, my home state. I left for 20 years, but I'm back and ready to work, so put me to work.
Dave Cortez:I feel that.
Stacie Freasier:About how old were you when you moved to Austin?
Dave Cortez:I moved here for school in 02. But my sister, like many of us, from El Paso, like, we dream of the day of getting out of town. We were stoked when the putt putt got built, when the mall was built. I think the town freaked out when Krispy Kreme came to town, know, like 800, 000 people, but it might as well be 40. And she moved here in 94 and this was the greenest, place I'd ever imagined on earth and it had an arcade called Lay Fun over on The Drag where she would drop me off and I could play while she and her friends went and did things that college students do on the Drag in the nineties.
Dave Cortez:And so, yeah, I wanted to come back since then. Went to school in 'two, St. Ed's, scraped my way through there, and then came back in 'nine trying to find work after the recession. I thought I could land an organizing job here. It took a little while to find it.
Stacie Freasier:Do you know what the seeds of your organizing were?
Dave Cortez:I didn't know. Like, a lot of us, when you go to school in college, you don't know what you're really there for other than to try and figure out something. I got exposed to social movements and the history of the civil rights movements and other movements in the 19 sixties during my freshman year of school. And it was wild, cool stuff. I didn't realize that you could go to school and learn about those things.
Dave Cortez:I had wanted to be a filmmaker and a few cool stuff like that. St. Edward's didn't really allow for that. He didn't support that. UT wouldn't let me in.
Dave Cortez:My grades weren't good enough. And so I started learning more about history and social movements, that evolved into political theory and logic and political philosophy, which still wasn't really like a, a job plan, a degree, you know, they wanted you to be a lobbyist, a politician, you know, those kinds of things, which none of which interested me, an attorney. And so, you know, but before all that, I mean, briefly, you know, I think anybody who was near of age when, George Bush in his regime stole the election in, 2, 000, Pretty outraged. You know, I went to a relatively privileged high school in, in West El Paso called Coronado, and me and like a handful of friends were the ones that were like, you know, Green Party, Mater. You know, we didn't really know a whole lot.
Dave Cortez:We were 17, couldn't vote, but we knew that we didn't like all the people that were supporting George Bush. And now over the years, I've learned why.
Stacie Freasier:The show is focused on the Austin community, so I want to give light and airtime to, what you think is most important happening that you're working on that will impact the the present and, more importantly, the future, of Austin right now?
Dave Cortez:My my goal I'm not I'm not a careerist even though I've been doing this for way too long with the CR club and in other, organizations, but my goal is to help broaden the culture value of history when it comes to organizing. The our culture needs to embrace organizing for power, which means being anti poverty in everything that we do, trying to create space for folks that are most affected by issues, but not afforded opportunity to participate in the decisions that are affecting their daily lives. It's very easy in the nonprofit industrial complex to do reformist work. Hey, send a petition to x, you know, ask y to do this. And, sometimes that works and we get some wins and we might increase, wages or protections for people, and those are all very valuable.
Dave Cortez:But when you're in this state, as I learned in El Paso, both growing up and then after college when I started organizing, there's a much greater system at play that is oppressing people, particularly, working class, poor, people of color, and women of color, and immigrants all over the state. There are state agencies that neglect, human interests and human rights in favor of corporate interests and corporate rights, And you can go to Seguin, New Braunfels, Houston, Arlington, Panhandle, El Paso, Laredo, you name it, Corpus, and in between the valley, and you'll see these same systems in full function. And so I think it's very important that folks in Austin know that we need to build bridges with communities across the state. Our local work is important, but it is a bit of a containment strategy to allow folks in Austin to fight for progressive causes, maybe they branch out to other cities a little bit, but if we're not unified in cultivating shared praxis and political analysis, in all those communities I mentioned, we have no chance in hell of defeating the regime that has been in power in this state for more than 20 years, and caused so much harm from taking away, a person's right to healthcare and abortion access, to militarizing the border, and detaining people trying to seek a better life for their families and kids, and folks who are suffering from the climate crisis.
Dave Cortez:You know, I see all the time how folks are just trying to get by, yet our electricity bills have almost tripled since winter storm, year in 2021. There's been no accountability, companies made 1, 000, 000, 000, We're all paying the bills. They've socialized the costs for those, bills in the winter storm, and privatize the profits. And so, whatever we do in Austin needs some needs to resonate across and beyond our city limits. There are issues here that are very important, like police accountability, like getting our public utility to be more responsive to the needs of working class people, and a range of other things.
Dave Cortez:But ultimately, my goal is to build networks and bridges across our people.
Stacie Freasier:Got it. Thank you for broadening the the lens. And let's talk about police enforcement for a minute. You and I had a conversation about connecting, police accountability, to climate justice, which I thought was really interesting, and I wanna hear hear a little more about that.
Dave Cortez:Right on. As organizers, people fighting for human rights in this state, in these lands, we always have to be considering how do we broaden our base and how do we strengthen the connections, well, between people within the base, to support each other and have strong understanding of of of the connections between their their issues of concern in solidarity and mutuality in how we approach addressing those issues of concern. When it comes to policing in Austin, we've always found it relatively pretty clear. Not only are the people that are most affected by pollution and poverty, the ones that are most affected by, police brutality, over policing, and police violence. We see that they're affected by the lack of investment from the city government in terms of community needs and facilities, things like parks, you know, quality infrastructure, and the like.
Dave Cortez:So, a lot of folks don't know Austin Energy is a cash cow for the city. Austin Energy makes 1, 000, 000 of dollars off of selling electricity into the ERCOT grid in Texas, from fossil fuel power plants, gas power plants, the Fayette coal plant. We produce electricity, sell it into the grid, make a lot of money. That money comes through us in energy into the city general revenue fund. And as many of us have learned over the last few years, much of that general revenue fund goes to funding policing instead of things like parks and libraries, health and human services, again, flooding infrastructure and other critical infrastructure for communities, things like maybe bearing power lines so we don't get stuck when the next winter disaster hits our community.
Dave Cortez:So it's a pretty straightforward line that we wanna see greater prioritization of of things that the community has said they wanted. We don't hear a big call for more police funding. We hear a big call for things that are gonna help people in their daily lives, and Austin Energy has a definite connection to that by providing the city with 1, 000, 000 of dollars, every year based on the fossil fuels that they're burning and selling into the market.
Stacie Freasier:I appreciate you putting light, making that literal connection for folks. I know that we're legislature is in session right now. Those who haven't taken a single action, how how can they jump on and and where should they jump on if they choose to?
Dave Cortez:Remember this 1 rule, from a gentleman you might know, Ron Chisholm, People's Institute For Survival and Beyond in New Orleans. When you're talking about dismantling racism, you're really talking about, dismantling poverty and lifting people out of poverty. And the first rule is there's no quick fix. And when we're talking about, overcoming 20 plus years of right wing dominance in our political landscape in Texas, we need to remember, it's going to take time to seize and win and build power long term. So get involved.
Dave Cortez:If it means going to a protest, sending a comment, making a phone call, that's all good. Just know that that is 1 small step towards a greater pathway to change in our state, whether it's on trans rights in healthcare access, protecting public education in public schools, or stopping attacks on workers and the environment at the legislature. All of it is good. Our challenge is to make sure that we're building unity across our issues beyond the legislative session because it is brutal, and they wield so much power, meaning the corporate interests that are captured by the Republican Party of Texas and some Democrats. But the corporate interests wield an immense amount of power that will mute your influence on an individual basis every single day because they pay people lots and lots of money to be there round the clock and shower their politicians with lots of donations and other comforts.
Dave Cortez:And so, the best thing we can do is use the legislative session to build community, connect with other organizations, connect with other people. There are lots of ways to advocate, lots of other folks to do in that, and it's relatively easy to to find that information online.
Stacie Freasier:In terms of organizing across networks, what do you see as maybe 1 example of of, of a well functioning network effort.
Dave Cortez:So there is a growing, in Texas, a growing movement around a concept called energy democracy. It's not a big public thing. We don't have a a website. But in the spirit of people powered decision making, We are organizing in multiple cities to make sure that people, 1, know how energy decisions are made. So when you get your electricity bill, what do all those charges mean?
Dave Cortez:Is there a way you can save money on that bill, maybe by, like, downsizing your trash bin and getting an extra recycle bin? A lot of working class people don't have access to that information. We can help people by sharing that information, democratize what's happening in front of them, and give them agency to participate in the process. This is all a stepping stone to larger goals of making pub making power public. We wanna see utilities governed by and for the people.
Dave Cortez:And in Texas, more than 90% of Texans are you pick your your power company like you would your cell phone provider. You go through the the book, you see who's out there, you don't know what it is, you're getting charged all kinds of fees. You just pay it because that's what you know. But we wanna flip that on its head. So we're working with folks around the state to learn about who they get their power from, what questions they have, what what what ideas they have.
Dave Cortez:We're slowly building AAA grassroots network from state, cities all across the state, where activists can support each other in my community. Because, like, Austin Energy, they just raised our rates last year. How do we fight that? Are there attorneys available? How do we get local solar into our communities?
Dave Cortez:We don't know anything about that. How do we help our folks in our community who have old, dilapidated housing and need it repaired? Is there some public money available? These kinds of things, they're not super sexy, but it is a critical step towards broadening who's engaged in climate policy. And we're seeing folks all over the state take interest and and have meetings together to share their knowledge.
Dave Cortez:It's really exciting.
Stacie Freasier:What's up on the waterfront?
Dave Cortez:Yeah. You know, something that also gets forgotten a lot in Austin, and shout out to to Poder in East Austin for for tackling this. A lot of people don't know that Eastern Travis County is essentially a colonia operating right next door to Austin, a colonia it's an unincorporated community, meaning they don't have a they're not represented by city government. They're represented by the county, And they're beholden to private energy sometimes, but usually private water interests, paying huge bills. Can you imagine paying 3, $400 a month just for regular drinking water?
Dave Cortez:Or folks in in Cameron County, outside of Brownsville, 1 of our organizers lives, they get water through a military highway supply company, you know, it's a crapshoot whether that water is going to be drinkable or not, and we're seeing this all over the state where rural Texans, folks in colonias, right outside the big cities, they just buy water because that's the life that they've learned, and that's the life that they're teaching their kids. They buy it from the store, they buy it from the water mills, and it's not something you get out of the tap. And that is so tragic. It's a business enterprise, people are making a lot of money, and nobody quite knows why it's like that. And now we see the Texas legislature claiming to try and fix these issues, but, of course, it's gonna be a big handout to developers, water investors, people who wanna build big, massive plants to draw water out of the ocean and pull the salt from it and then turn that into drinking water instead of doing things like, you know, prioritizing water for people and not big industry, not for big power plants, and things like that.
Dave Cortez:So, you know, Texas, more and more and more, consume, consume, consume. Nothing about conserve, reduce, reuse, and democratize. You know, I'll I'll I wanna offer 1 other piece here, about Austin when it comes to the intersection between leasing and climate energy, we we we can't isolate these issues. And many folks who've been around know about the history of the Holly power plant. Gas power plant, near the Holly Shores that was there for decades in a working class Chicano community, polluting that community with noise, nitrogen oxide, particulates, just operated with impunity for for a long time, harming folks.
Dave Cortez:It wasn't until it was shut down due to the organizing by groups like Poder and other neighborhood associations in in in East Austin, that people started to take interest in living in those communities. Whenever we try to build the good, meaning we get rid of the bad stuff and build the good, Parks, turning red bluff in east Austin from an illegal waste dump to a nature preserve. The gentry and the new pogroms get their eyes on it, the developers get their eyes on it, and we see a systemic displacement of folks who have had nowhere else to live other than the place that they were, they're forced out. Oftentimes, you see more police patrols, You see increased calls to code enforcement. You see efforts by certain types of folks who are new to the community, not interested in being neighbors with the folks who were there, using the state apparatus to increase pressure on folks who they deem beneath them, maybe unworthy, And gentrification just happens rapidly.
Dave Cortez:Folks are displaced so quickly. By the time grandma and grandpa are gonna sell their home, all the kids have moved away. And they're living in Pflugerville, Round Rock. They're living in all of this, you know, suburban areas, where it's a little more affordable. And now it's like, do we move back somewhere that's not even for us?
Dave Cortez:Or do we sell that property and make a little money for our family, to maybe have some cushion? And that is just such a violent colonization of culture and destruction of culture in this town. And to the point where we see complete erasure taking place, and it's not those communities, once they're completely erased, that are being policed. It's places like what we're seeing with DPS right now in Rundberg, in North Austin. They're gonna go ahead and patrol areas where they know there's brown folks, poor folks, black folks, might, immigrant folks, and and work to create pressure to get them out of those communities.
Dave Cortez:The domain can have what it has. The soccer communities can have what what what they have around the the soccer stadium. Nothing against Austin FC.
Stacie Freasier:Who are some of your role models? Who are some of your teachers?
Dave Cortez:I've learned from a lot of folks. I mean, I'm I'm I'm not a big reader. I have reading comprehension problems, and attention focused problems that makes it tough to read. But I enjoyed learning from folks in the movement. You know, they're not necessarily famous people.
Dave Cortez:But back home, we had a woman named Aurelia Roque. At the time, you know, she's in her 70s, you know, an abuela grandmother from the colonias on the other side of the river, right there in, colonia filipe angelas, where the Asarco smokestack was raining pollution down on her community, for decades. And she would come over and come to our ferocious, organized, you know, holds you accountable woman I've ever met, you know, for, like, us 20 somethings, and mohawks, and just a real punk attitude, like, we knew who we were there to serve. Right? It was her and her neighbors, and she is always with me in spirit now, but she inspires me.
Dave Cortez:Similarly, plant workers from the Asarco Copper Smelter, men who worked at the smelter had to do a lot of horrible things to run that plant and who became very ill and whose families became ill. Daniel Arellano, Carlos Rodriguez, Efren Martinez, these are blue collar men that were like my uncle who just had the jobs that they could have working at a refinery or a smelter, you know, didn't really know what was happening to them, didn't know how to ask for help, but once afforded the opportunity to talk about and learn about what was going on, they immediately opted to serve their neighbors. And that that stuff will always stick with me. Pete Rivera in East Austin, the Rivera family, Gilbert Rivera, Raymond Rivera, they are, also steadfast elders and an inspiration to me. Susana Al Mansa, as well.
Dave Cortez:I could go on and on, but those are a few. 6 years living in in Montauk, right there, where 183 crossed it crossed with Montopolis, right at the edge of the community near the river, old floodplain. And, you know, we got to see the new pilgrims coming in firsthand. But it was also, 2 lots down from what was called the Montopolis School for Negro Children. It used to be an old plantation school, before Montopolis became part of the city of Austin.
Dave Cortez:And there, in that community, it was not only just rich with culture and stories, and in this history, many of the people that went to that school still lived there. And it was amazing to get you know, my my own neighbor, miss Johnson was there her son, such a school there, she went to school there, they all live together. Georgia Keene, just down the street, next to Circle Acres, by College of Action, went to school there, lives there. You know, these are folks, who became lead advocates for preserving the the school to keep Austin Stowell from Keep Real Estate from demolishing the school, which looked like a piece of metal and junk to his colonizing eyes, and in preserving it for its history and value, because when you went inside, it was a time capsule to the to the the era of plantation schools in this, in this community. You know, it would have been really easy, and at times it was, it happened where, you know, I would be speaking out or Susana or others would be speaking out.
Dave Cortez:And that's the default. Hey, you know, we're here, we've got networks and, political capital, social capital, we will speak on behalf. Now getting those folks to tell their own stories, just honestly, just leaning over the fence and listening and shut shutting the hell up and listening to what they had to say, was incredibly impactful, incredibly inspiring and empowering. And my job became just making sure that the people in power knew that these folks existed and would hear directly from them. Oftentimes, they can't go to city hall, but, you know, heck, I got a phone.
Dave Cortez:Everybody's posting all this BS of themselves on social media. I might as well record them and play it there. So, you know, seating space is really critical and uplifting frontline directly impacted folks, not the same person over and over again, getting out and talking to the people that you don't normally talk to. I always give the example, when you live in an apartment complex, oftentimes, you don't know who's living right across the street from you I mean, right across the hallway, next door. You see them on your way in, on your way out, maybe when you're taking the trash and you wave.
Dave Cortez:But who are these people? And that we have become so colonized and removed from our inherent natural desire for connection with other human beings, that we don't often make those connections, and they aren't everywhere. And if you're willing to talk to folks that are in a community that's been ignored, you're gonna hear this as you would in your community just countless numbers of stories of of of folks who wanna see a better world. And and we have to do more to lift them up. It can't just be us folks folks.
Stacie Freasier:I appreciate that. I live my life that way. I know all my neighbors' names and numbers, their kids, and what they're interested in, what their favorite dessert is, frankly. And for anyone out there who's listening, you can contact the station, get a hold of me, and I'm that flaming extroverted friend who will come over and introduce myself to your neighbors so you can get to know them better.
Dave Cortez:Love it.
Stacie Freasier:So, Dave, I think we're about out of time. You're welcome back on the show any anytime. I look forward to the many things we will do and how we will instill in our children the importance of community and the threat of continuity with all the people who have come before us and our littles who are coming after us and, keep this work heart centered, relationship and people first.
Dave Cortez:Absolutely.
Stacie Freasier:And lastly, how can folks find you if they are interested now in following up on any of these points and and getting involved?
Dave Cortez:Yeah. You can find us at you can find my my work at at Texas Sierra Club on Twitter or at Austin by Chucocochuc0. It's, gonna be some local organizing, state organizing. It's probably the best place to go.
Stacie Freasier:Thank you so much for tuning in. The music you heard was from Shoyinka Rahim's 2016 album, Bebo Love. This, along with previous episodes, are available anywhere you listen to podcasts by searching for racism on the levels. I'd love to hear from you. Please reach out with show ideas, collaborations, comments, and questions.
Stacie Freasier:My email is stacie, stacie@coop.org. I give enthusiastic thanks to Michelle Manning Scott and Nabil Azerhouni for production support. My son, Rumi, provided motivation. Remember in all things and always, love is the highest level.