1 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I welcome to Stephane. 2 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:19,280 Speaker 1: Never told your protection of I Heart Radio. So this 3 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:23,200 Speaker 1: month and is a p I h M or a 4 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:28,080 Speaker 1: a p I h M or Asian Pacific Lender Heritage months. 5 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 1: So we wanted to highlight a woman who has been 6 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 1: working really hard in UM bringing justice and equality and 7 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:37,640 Speaker 1: restoration to her community. And so we are going to 8 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:41,880 Speaker 1: talk about Mia Minga's. I feel like there needs to 9 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,159 Speaker 1: be a clapped for something. So Mingas is a writer, educator, 10 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:49,839 Speaker 1: and an expert community organizer for transformative justice, disability justice 11 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: and transformive justice, for fighting against child sexual abuse. And 12 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:56,680 Speaker 1: as it stays in one article when they're talking about Minga's, 13 00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:00,760 Speaker 1: she is a quote queer, physically disabled Korean woman, transfracial 14 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 1: and transnational adoptee born in Korea, raised in the Caribbean, 15 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:07,760 Speaker 1: nurtured in the US South, and now living in North California. 16 00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:10,679 Speaker 1: And to say she is a fighter is an understatement. 17 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:14,080 Speaker 1: She is a fierce advocate whose passion and overall expertise 18 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:18,640 Speaker 1: has been a guide for many including for colleges, universities, 19 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: and communities worldwide. Her career achievements have included working in 20 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: transformative justice, including in prison abolition and disability justice. She 21 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:29,839 Speaker 1: has been a key advocate in fighting for transformative justice 22 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:31,960 Speaker 1: in response to child sexual abuse as well, and as 23 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:35,320 Speaker 1: part of the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, which is 24 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: a community group in Oakland, California. Right So, transformative justice 25 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: is something she continues to talk about in implementing and 26 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:44,639 Speaker 1: teaching around the country. As it is written in her blog, 27 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:49,200 Speaker 1: she is quote passionate about building skills, relationships, and structures 28 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:52,560 Speaker 1: that transforms violence, harm and abuse within our communities and 29 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 1: that do not rely on or replicate the punitive system 30 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:59,600 Speaker 1: we currently live in. So Amingas defines transformative justice as 31 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 1: a quote political framework and approach for responding to violence, 32 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: harm and abuse. At its most basic, it seeks to 33 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:09,800 Speaker 1: respond to violence without creating more violence and or engaging 34 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:13,720 Speaker 1: in harm reduction to lessen the violence. And she continues 35 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 1: on transformedive justice responses and interventions one do not rely 36 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: on the state e g. Police prisons, the criminal legal system, ice, 37 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:25,920 Speaker 1: foster care system, though some TJ responses do rely on 38 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 1: or incorporate social services like counseling to do not reinforce 39 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,000 Speaker 1: or perpetuate violence, such as oppressive norms are vigilanteism, and 40 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: most importantly, three actively cultivate the things we know premit violences, 41 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:42,239 Speaker 1: such as healing, accountability, resilience and safety for all involved. 42 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,320 Speaker 1: Within her work and transformtive justice, she also pushed the 43 00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:49,359 Speaker 1: framework of disability justice. She defines disability justice as quote 44 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:53,120 Speaker 1: an emerging political framework rooted in the lived experiences of 45 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: disabled people who have been largely excluded, silenced, and ignored 46 00:02:56,639 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: by the mainstream. At disability rights movement led by disabled 47 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,520 Speaker 1: people of color, specifically disabled queer women, trans and gender 48 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:07,600 Speaker 1: nonconforming people, disability justice demands a sharp and deep analysis 49 00:03:07,639 --> 00:03:09,840 Speaker 1: of able is m so in her explanation of the 50 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:12,960 Speaker 1: framework for disability justice, she states, quote, we need to 51 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,400 Speaker 1: think of access with an understanding of disability justice, moving 52 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:19,800 Speaker 1: away from an equality based model of saneness and we 53 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:22,800 Speaker 1: are just like you, to a model of disability that 54 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,919 Speaker 1: embraces differences, confronts privilege, and challenges what is considered quote 55 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: norm on every front. We don't want to simply join 56 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:32,520 Speaker 1: the ranks of the privilege. We want to dismantle those 57 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 1: ranks in system that maintains them. And because there's no 58 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 1: way we could explain what she is doing and how 59 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:39,880 Speaker 1: she continues to affect change better than her own words. 60 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: We're gonna keep on, She states, Disability justice activists are 61 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: engaged in building an understanding of disability that is more complex, whole, 62 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:51,560 Speaker 1: and interconnected than what we have previously found. We are 63 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:55,280 Speaker 1: disabled people who are people of color, women, gender, queer 64 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:59,480 Speaker 1: and transgender, poor and working class, youth, immigrants, lesbian, gay, 65 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 1: bisyde torual and queer, and more. We are pushing for 66 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: an understanding of how able is um affects all of 67 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 1: our movements for justice. We are drawing connections between able 68 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:11,000 Speaker 1: ism and other systems of oppression and violent institutions. We 69 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:13,960 Speaker 1: are pushing for a more nuanced and fierce interrogation of 70 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:18,040 Speaker 1: the medical industrial complex and understandings of health, wellness, and 71 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:21,120 Speaker 1: healing that aren't rooted in a list notions of bodies 72 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:25,000 Speaker 1: and what is considered normal. Within her conversation of disability justice, 73 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 1: she also speaks to her own privilege, stating in the interview, 74 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:31,400 Speaker 1: it is important to acknowledge the complexities of privilege and 75 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,400 Speaker 1: oppression and how they play out in our worlds. For me, 76 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 1: it is especially important around disability in this particular historical 77 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:41,120 Speaker 1: and political moment. Historically speaking, we are still so close 78 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:43,880 Speaker 1: to the majority of our history where most disabled people 79 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:46,760 Speaker 1: were locked up, institutionalized, homeless, hidden away in the back 80 00:04:46,839 --> 00:04:49,680 Speaker 1: rooms of their family homes, not allowed to access education 81 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:52,120 Speaker 1: or have a job, and generally not allowed to participate 82 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,320 Speaker 1: in the public sphere at large. And this is still 83 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:56,479 Speaker 1: so true for so many people. So for me to 84 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:58,160 Speaker 1: be able to do the kind of work that I do, 85 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 1: to be able to travel, be listened, to be able 86 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:02,760 Speaker 1: to work at sixteen hour day, it is so much 87 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:04,919 Speaker 1: about having the kind of disability and body that is 88 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:09,080 Speaker 1: quote able enough discrease itself into those privileged spaces. And 89 00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: she has also coined terms like access intimacy, which she 90 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 1: states is that elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone 91 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:18,800 Speaker 1: else gets your access needs and that sometimes it can 92 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:22,279 Speaker 1: happen with complete strangers, disabled or not, or sometimes it 93 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,599 Speaker 1: can be built over years, and she continues, is also 94 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:28,280 Speaker 1: the intimacy I feel with many other disabled and sick 95 00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:31,480 Speaker 1: people who have an automatic understanding to access needs out 96 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:34,799 Speaker 1: of shared similar lived experiences of though many different ways 97 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:37,760 Speaker 1: able is um in menifests in our lives. Together, we 98 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:40,960 Speaker 1: share a kind of access intimacy that is ground level, 99 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:44,360 Speaker 1: with no need for explanations, and she also coined terms 100 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 1: and concepts such as politically and descriptively disabled, which she says, quote, 101 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:51,360 Speaker 1: when I say descriptively disabled, I mean someone who has 102 00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:55,160 Speaker 1: lived the experience of being disabled and about politically disabled, 103 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: she explains, when I say politically disabled, I mean someone 104 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 1: who is descriptively disabled and has a political understanding about 105 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:03,720 Speaker 1: that lived experience. I mean someone who has an analysis 106 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:06,400 Speaker 1: about able is um power privilege, who feels connected to 107 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:09,760 Speaker 1: and is in solidarity with other disabled people, regardless of 108 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:14,160 Speaker 1: whatever language you use. And she also coined the term 109 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 1: forced intimacy on top of that, and specific to forced intimacy, 110 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:20,440 Speaker 1: Mingus describes it as quote a term I have been 111 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:22,680 Speaker 1: using for years to refer to the common daily experience 112 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:25,159 Speaker 1: of disabled people being expected to share personal parts of 113 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:28,560 Speaker 1: ourselves to survive an enablest world. This often takes the 114 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:31,480 Speaker 1: form of being expected to share very personal information with 115 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:34,760 Speaker 1: able bodied people to get basic access, but it also 116 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: includes forced physical intimacy, especially for those of us who 117 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:41,599 Speaker 1: need physical help that often requires touching of our bodies. 118 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,280 Speaker 1: And she continues on to say forced intimacy is a 119 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:48,320 Speaker 1: cornerstone of how able is M functions and enable bodied 120 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:52,120 Speaker 1: supremast world. Disabled people are expected to quote stripped down 121 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:54,960 Speaker 1: and show all our cards metaphorically in order to get 122 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:58,040 Speaker 1: the basic access we need in order to survive. And 123 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:00,680 Speaker 1: there are so many other things that she talks about, 124 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: and of course this is just a small example of 125 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: her incredible work and continued advocacy for disability justice and 126 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:12,120 Speaker 1: transformative justice practices UH in cases of sexual abuse, president abolition, 127 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: and so many other things. And she has many a 128 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:17,920 Speaker 1: TED talks, she has many interviews. She is a wealth 129 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:20,520 Speaker 1: of knowledge that is so very much needed. She has 130 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: put up all of that work for those of us 131 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 1: who have that privilege of not understanding can do the 132 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:28,520 Speaker 1: work ourselves just by reading her stuff. So first and foremost, 133 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:31,760 Speaker 1: thank you, Thank you, Miya. But again, she has been 134 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:35,440 Speaker 1: awarded many accolades for her hard work, including the Create 135 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:38,119 Speaker 1: Change Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force 136 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:42,120 Speaker 1: forty under forty the APIs Women's Champion of Change from 137 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:46,280 Speaker 1: President Barack Obama. The one women we love And I 138 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 1: mean we would put that in our category too, Maybe 139 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:50,720 Speaker 1: we don't. We have a full hundred women that we've 140 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:53,400 Speaker 1: talked about. No, not yet yet, but she's definitely up 141 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:56,560 Speaker 1: there and the recipient of the Disability Features Fellowship for 142 00:07:56,640 --> 00:07:59,240 Speaker 1: her continued work. So she is definitely someone that you 143 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:01,800 Speaker 1: should have on your list as a resource and U 144 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:05,320 Speaker 1: when we talk about intersectionality, she would be one of 145 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:08,560 Speaker 1: those that would be the forefront and definition of her 146 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:12,520 Speaker 1: advocacy work being about intersectionality, so it's really important. So 147 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:15,080 Speaker 1: you can check out her blog at Leaving Evidence dot 148 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:18,840 Speaker 1: WordPress dot com and she's also on Instagram and Twitter, 149 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:22,720 Speaker 1: so we would highly recommend that you follow her absolutely 150 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:26,160 Speaker 1: and if you would like to hit us up you can. 151 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:29,080 Speaker 1: Our email is Stephanie and mom Stuff that I Heart 152 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:30,920 Speaker 1: media dot com. You can find us on Twitter at 153 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,080 Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram and Stuff I've Never 154 00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:35,640 Speaker 1: Told You. Thanks as always, you're a super producer. Christina, 155 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:38,800 Speaker 1: thank you and thanks to you for listening. Steph I've 156 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:40,960 Speaker 1: Never Told his protection of iHeart Radio. For more podcast 157 00:08:41,040 --> 00:08:43,520 Speaker 1: from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 158 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.