Joie Nikita Ha

Resolve. If there is just one word I can use to describe Joie Nikita Ha, the Founder and CEO of Community Organizing for Radical Empathy (CORE), “resolve” would be the word. This word came to me as I was contemplating what I wanted to write about her. I will be honest. At first, I did not want to interview Joie, not because she did not meet my standards of a leader. Far from it. She has done more to bring visibility to the AAPI community in Colorado than most people I know. I was fudging because I personally do not enjoy following in other people’s footsteps or what is that proverbial expression, ‘jump on the bandwagon.’ Everyone wants to talk or work with Joie. She is beautiful, smart, articulate, and self-assured in how she moves and facilitates a conversation in a workshop. I should know because she not only participated in our workshops but facilitated our “Social Entrepreneurs” panel discussion. She was able to organize and encapsulate the main ideas of the conversations that sometimes went awry. I was extremely happy that I didn’t have to get up to help her. I hate to leave my chair when I am engrossed in a topic and I love when facilitators are able to shine within the parameters of a workshop.

So what is it about Joie’s resolve that captivated me? Simply, she does not allow her fears to stop her from accomplishing her goals. Like everyone at her age, she is anxious and perhaps scared shitless at the prospect of going to places or doing things that are new. I know because I was young once or maybe twice and I have 8 niblings who are coming into adulthood. Yet this fear does not stop her from engaging; she plows through each venture knowing in spite of her fears. Let me explain. In my interactions with Joie, I noticed her professionalism, which in the interview, she acknowledges was her attempt to ‘fake-it-until-you-make-it.” If anyone knows me, I am not a huge proponent of this practice. I actually have a chapter in my book discussing this very issue among people who perform to succeed in the corporate world. Yet Joie does not work with her fears to make lots of money (well, some because we all need to eat), but rather a determination to show up.

Joie is motivated among her desire to grow as a leader, a passion to elevate the visibility of AAPI which includes herself. She understands, which is pivotal in any person’s work in activism, that she is part of the community. Her thriving is necessary component of her work in lifting up the voices of the AAPI. She does not have a messianic complex because her work benefits her and her community. Most people would argue that it is a form of pure self-interest. Yes and no. What people fail to understand is that activism should be and is an expression of self-interest. People are generally, if not mostly motivated by self-interest. It is our human nature. And anyone who denies it in the name of altruism is under the delusion of self-grandeur. This is where the danger resides in the lie that we are somehow the savior, which is the justification for colonialism, the white savior industrial complex. 

I can see a look of confusion in most people’s faces. Is this a compliment? An absolute affirmative. Joie is smart. She knows that her work, her success, her very embodiment of the values of anti-racism in public space is transforming how people see Asian women, not as passive and submissive but a powerful voice for the underdog. She, a strong woman, is AAPI; she is the community. But she does not stop at lifting up her voice; she serves and represents her community which is an extension of her family. She uses her strengths to bring awareness to issues impacting her community which happens to be my community as well. In understanding the need for her community to thrive, she realizes the need for every marginalized community to thrive. It is in her self-interest that we all thrive. Again I say, she is smart. She is a smart activist.  She embodies the future of social activism, one in which we redefine the very definition of self-interest as we-interest, a vision where we ALL work together for the betterment of US (us, not United States).

So I come back to the word, resolve. She is determined to bring visibility to the AAPI because her life and the lives of millions of marginalized lives are at stake. The moment in which one life is oppressed, she knows her life is oppressed. Her resolve is to give life to everyone through her work for her community. If we are able to see and know how our work in activism is interconnected to every other community, including ourselves, we would also be more determined. We would become more like Joie Ha. Maybe not as beautiful and young (vis-a-vis me) but as resolved as she is. It is in our self-interest to lift the interest of our communities. Any smart person should know this. But unfortunately, many of us prefer to live in ignorance, a matrix of lies in which our happiness is in the oppression of others.  This is the reason why we are in such a mess.

Here is the video of our conversation and of course I have also attached just the podcast:

Joie Ha’s Bio

As the daughter of refugees, Joie Ha (she/her/hers) has always endeavored to do more good for more people. She has been an activist and organizer for minority communities in Colorado for over 10 years. She has a B.A. in Anthropology and a Masters in Development Practice with a focus on holistic methods of treating mental health for the Vietnamese refugee community in Denver. She has completed development work in Malaysia as a Community Development Officer in Kampung Sungai Suloh, and Cambodia as a researcher regarding how hip-hop can create fictive kin for youth enticed by the familial aspects of gangs. In the United States, Joie often engages in community projects with focus on anti-racist work, liberation of minoritized groups, and the intersection of art and activism. Joie is also a self-proclaimed data nerd and activist, and has several years of event planning and grassroots organizing expertise. In her community, she currently sits as Chair for the Denver Asian American Pacific Islander Commission, and Vice Chair for Colorado Asian Pacific United.