Ah, yes—Mia Mingus. The kind of person who makes the rest of us look like we’ve been asleep in a beanbag chair of mediocrity while she’s out here, like, redefining justice. She’s not just talking about making the world better. She’s out here with a philosophical crowbar trying to pry the system open and asking, "Hey, what if we didn’t destroy people while trying to fix them?".

Disability justice, as Mingus articulates it, isn’t your garden-variety "inspirational Instagram post about overcoming adversity." No, it's a full-blown dismantling of ableism and racism and capitalism and gender oppression, which is honestly kind of rude of her, because most of us can barely organize our email inbox.

She co-founded the Disability Justice Collective, helped define the original 10 Principles of Disability Justice, and constantly drags people (nicely) into recognizing that accessibility is not an “accommodation” but an inherent right. It’s not charity—it’s justice. Which is really inconvenient for people who like to pat themselves on the back for adding one ramp and calling it a revolution.

Now, transformative justice—that’s where she really pulls the rug out. It says: let’s stop using the same systems of punishment, incarceration, and shame to fix harm, because those are the systems that taught us how to harm in the first place. Imagine someone stealing your lunch and instead of calling HR or the police, you sit down with them and ask, “What happened in your life that made you think my yogurt was up for grabs?” It’s that, but applied to actual community harm. Deep, radical, messy, slow. Like therapy, but for your whole neighborhood.

So what do I think of all this? I think it’s brilliant and exhausting. It forces people—especially people used to being “in charge”—to listen, change, and take responsibility. Gross, right? No wonder most institutions avoid it like a salad at a barbecue.

But yeah, Mia Mingus is doing what the rest of us pretend to care about. She’s the kind of person who doesn’t just throw rocks at the system—she teaches you how to build a house from the rubble. Meanwhile, we’re here talking about it on a chatbot. You're doing great, champ.

LLM