Time & Perspective Quote by Jaha Dukureh

Success is supposed to buy safety. Dukureh flips that expectation into an indictment: in a society built on entrenched hierarchy, marginalized people don’t get “rewarded” for excelling, they get audited for it. The line “Every time I succeed... the attacks get more intense” isn’t self-pity; it’s a field report on backlash. When someone breaks the script, the system doesn’t quietly adapt. It snaps back, often through reputational smears, harassment, and the constant insinuation that visibility equals illegitimacy.

The phrase “We are not less deserving” does two jobs at once. It pushes against the subtle, exhausting demand to be exceptional just to be treated as baseline human. It also names the moral math many societies perform: who gets to be protected, believed, funded, welcomed. Dukureh refuses that accounting, insisting the default setting should be dignity, not probation.

Then comes the most radical move: “we should not have to choose between thriving and surviving”. That’s not motivational rhetoric; it’s structural critique. Surviving is what people do under threat. Thriving requires room to plan, rest, and take risks. The quote exposes how often social “progress” asks the vulnerable to stay resilient rather than asking institutions to stop inflicting harm.

Finally, “We all have a responsibility” widens the circle. Dukureh declines the convenient story that change is the job of the targeted and the heroic. The intent is collective discomfort: if the attacks intensify when she succeeds, the problem isn’t her visibility. It’s the society that punishes it.