Dr. Arelia Johnson on Leadership, Liberation and the Power of Joy

For Dr. Arelia Johnson, leadership is not about constant performance, perfection, or proving one’s worth. It is about creating systems that serve people, using language with intention, and making space for joy as an essential part of justice work.

As the founder of Arelia Johnson, LLC, Dr. Johnson brings together her experiences as a public servant, strategist, scholar-practitioner, and community organizer to help individuals and organizations rethink equity, leadership, language, and transformation. Her work challenges leaders to look beyond familiar terminology and examine what those words actually produce in practice.

Johnson is also the author of Hijacking Equity and the Fight for Justice: A Practical Guide to Language, Liberation, and Leadership in a Time of Fear. The book explores the ways powerful institutions can redefine justice-oriented language, transform meaningful concepts into corporate messaging, and ultimately dilute the action required to create equitable systems.

At the heart of Johnson’s philosophy is a belief that language matters because the words used to describe people, power, justice, and leadership can shape how those ideas are understood and practiced. For Black women in particular, she believes there is an opportunity to reclaim definitions that have too often been shaped by stereotypes, expectations, and outside validation.

Her perspective offers a powerful reminder that leadership does not require abandoning oneself. Sometimes, the most transformative form of leadership begins with knowing who you are, belonging to yourself, and allowing joy, truth, and security to guide how you move through the world.

How can Black women lead authentically without feeling pressured to constantly prove themselves?

I think that is an individual process. Authenticity is a term that gets thrown around, and it has been co-opted and corrupted by mainstream society, especially as it pertains to Black women. I believe it has to be defined by each individual with precision. I’m not even sure authenticity and truth are the same thing. I can walk into a room and perform, and still be authentic in that performance. So the real question may not be about authenticity at all. It may be about truth.

And truth, especially when turned inward, comes with a validation that only you can give yourself, a belonging that only you can give yourself, a joy that the world cannot hand you. Once you have identified that in yourself, the world cannot take it away.

Black women have to situate themselves in a place of peace. They have to define who they are outside of the noise. They have to know they belong to themselves first, and that is a frightening place to stand. There is uncertainty in it. There is angst in it. Some Black women are already fully settled into themselves. Some of us are just now arriving at that threshold. And some of us are still afraid to even step toward it.

But I believe Black women have the capacity to lead. I believe Black women are among the most innovative and gifted people on this planet, and there is a magic and a power in her that I want more of us to recognize and reside in.

How can Black women reject the expectation that they must always be strong?

I think this question needs to be answered in two parts. First, I don’t reject strength at all. What I reject is how strength has been personified in media and used to Black women’s detriment while benefiting others.

So when I look at “always be strong,” what I’m really examining is how we define strength. There are racist, sexist tropes wrapped around the strong Black woman archetype, tropes that turn her emotions into weapons against her, that read her strength as anger rather than as capacity.

But if we define strength instead as her ability to adapt, to innovate, to create, to act as an alchemist who makes something out of nothing, to bring laughter and joy and spirit and magic and rhythm and color into every space she occupies, to saturate a room with her essence, that is an entirely different conversation.

Words have power. Words matter. Language matters, especially when it comes to how language has been used to define Black people, and particularly Black women. So I don’t reject the notion of strength. I choose to redefine it.

What is one lesson from your book that every leader should hear?

Joy is revolutionary. Joy is a spiritual commitment and a technology that reconnects us to our humanity. It restores our ability to feel, perceive, and relate to one another beyond mere survival.

Joy sustains the emotional, spiritual, and physical effort required to do anti-racist social justice work over the long haul. Joy allows us to reflect who we truly are. And leaders need to understand that joy is not indulgent. It is a human right, a civil right, a birthright.

What is one word that describes healthy leadership?

Secure. Full stop.

Secure people do not need to dominate others. They don’t operate through fear, and they don’t sow conflict or toxicity to maintain control.

Every healthy leader I’ve had in my life has been secure, and I try to lead the same way. I am not threatened, because there is nothing anyone can do to unsettle what I know I bring to the table. I am competent, I am capable, and I am confident in my abilities.

A healthy leader is a secure leader. An insecure leader is a dangerous one.