!
Dear Mr. Basketmouth. I write in peace, because
war does not solve anything. Moreover I am
desperate to communicate in a way that will get
you to understand the gravity of what you did by
sharing a horrible joke, whose punchline is rape.
Of African girls. Not a white girl which is stated
very clearly at the beginning of your joke. By the
way please do not accuse me of turning this into
a racial matter. No, Actually you did that. Here is
your joke sir:
White girls:
1st date: Coffee
2nd date: Kiss
3rd date: sex
African girls:
1st date: Fast food
2nd date: Hug
3rd date: Chinese restaurant
4th date: kiss
5th date: Attempted sex but failed
6th date: Shopping
7th date: Cinema, new phone, more shopping
8th date: Attempted sex but failed
9th date: RAPE!!
Oh and I took a screen shot of it in case you
cannot believe that you would ever do such a
thing. Here it is.
Mr. Basketmouth I am hoping that by the time I
am done talking with you and the 5000+ people
who liked and commented on your “joke”, you
will have learned something about rape and why
rape is a sick, vile and criminal act and why
making light of this scourge that has everyone of
us who has a vagina living with fear, is cruel and
hateful.
We are not safe Mr. Basketmouth because men
take our bodies and they rip us apart without a
thought to the life- long trauma that we suffer as
a result of such a violation. Mr. Basket mouth
have you ever had anyone violate you by doing
as they pleased with your body? Have you ever
had someone grab you, throw you on the ground
slapping you and telling you to shut up, then
proceed to tear your legs apart and force his
penis into your anus? Have you? I think not
because let me tell you Mr. Basketmouth,
because if it were so, you could never make rape
an issue for comedy. I know comedians like to
poke fun at all things and the irreverence is often
what draws laughs. However Rape is not funny
and if it elicits laughter, which it did in some of
your fans,then this is a sign of depravity and a
warning to all women that we are not safe among
men, even the ones who purport to love us.
Would your joke be funny if your mother your
sister, your aunt, your daughter had been raped?
If you daughter or your sister had come home
with blood running down her legs because some
brute had seen her, not as a human being with
feelings and a physical body that hurts and
bleeds, but as a vessel for his lust, his rage, his
disrespect and his misogyny?
Would your joke be funny to you if you came
home to find your 6 month old daughter barely
alive because 5 men had broken into your home
and decided that a baby’s tiny vagina was big
enough to contain their five joysticks one after the
other, muffling her cries with her burp cloth until
she passed out?
Would your joke be funny if your favorite uncle
gave himself permission to pin down your 12
year old daughter as she gave him water to
drink? How would you laugh when you came
home and found her doubled over in pain with a
haunted look in her eyes?
Perhaps you would guffaw at the news that your
daughter committed suicide because she had
been raped and could not deal with it. She had
no one to tell because her father, comedian
Basket mouth thought rape was a big JOKE?
That he would laugh at her, and tell her she
deserved it for having worn such a short skirt or
having gone to dinner and allowed him to spend
money on her? Mr. Basketmouth your 5,000 fans
who loved your joke were making comments like:
after all that she deserves to be raped. The few
people who tried to be the voices of reason were
insulted and heckled off your page, leaving an
aggregation of the sickness that our men are.
Yes those men who like your status are the
sickness we have to contend with as African
women. Those 5,000 odd fans of yours are part
of the problem because their endorsement of
your hideous attempt at humor is a signal that
there is a fundamental hatred for African women
by African men and that raping African women is
fair game.
The fact that you think that you posted a funny
joke means that you are also part of a huge
problem that we face in this world, a problem
that affects more than half the population. It also
means that these statistics mean nothing to you
and therefore African women and women in
general mean very little to you.
Mr. Basket mouth one in 3 women will be raped
or beaten in her lifetime. That is One billion
people whose bodies will be violated. These are
United Nations statistic. However judging on the
response to your joke, and based on my own
experience in the work of trying to end violence
against women and girls, the number is more like
one in two women. This means sir that your post
today was in all likelihood seen by many women
who have been raped. Let this sink in for a
minute: Women who have been raped and saw
your joke have probably been hurt all over again,
because your joke makes a mockery of untold
suffering that only she who has been raped will
ever understand. Do you get why this joke is
such a disgusting show of insensitivity and a
blatant display of disrespect for women’s and
therefore human dignity? The additional insult to
injury are your 5,000 plus groupies who bigged
you up for disrespecting African women. It is
frightening to realize that these would be the
type of men who would be bystanders watching
a girl being raped, and still perceive themselves
as being "good'. Good men who tell rape jokes,
laugh at rape jokes and say nothing when
women are disrespected are also perpetrators!
In my line of work we spend so much time
teaching girls how to protect themselves from
being raped. From an early age girls are taught
to view themselves from the negatives, that are
heaped on them because men rape. It is girls'
fault that men are depraved. We teach them not
to walk alone after dark, not to be alone with
boys, to wear “decent clothes”. Yet after all this,
many are still raped. Why is that Mr.
Basketmouth? BECAUSE BOYS AND MEN ARE
NOT BEING TAUGHT THAT RAPE IS NOT A JOKE!
We place the burden of being safe on girls but
GIRLS DO NOT RAPE THEMSELVES AND YOUR
JOKE LEGITIMIZES AND REINFORCES THE
NOTION THAT RAPING A GIRL IS OK!!! Rape is
NOT TRIVIAL!
Mr. Basketmouth I am tired of this work. I am
tired because people like you make my work
really difficult. While I and thousands of other
activists are working tirelessly to educate men
that under no circumstances is raping a woman
ok, you are undoing our work 5,000 men at a
time!!!! Haba!!! I am tired of waking up every
single day to stories of women gang raped and
mutilated in South Africa and India and in the
U.S. military and in the Congo and you making a
joke about this is really very demoralizing and it
makes me very angry.
I hope that this letter will make you reflect for a
moment and I hope that you also realize that
your position of privilege and influence can be
used for real positive social change in Nigeria
and beyond. What would be great is if you are
man enough to apologize to the women you
have insulted and hurt by your crass joke. I also
hope that you will consider undoing the damage
you have caused those who so believed you
were a decent guy. I was a fan of yours until
about 2 hours ago when I saw your post. Now I
only feel a heavy sadness, disappointment and a
deeper desire to fight for Justice. Right now
Justice to me looks like you Basketmouth issuing
a sincere apology and becoming an anti-rape
activist.
Once an avid fan
Barbara Mhangami

Confused

I've read this joke a couple of times before and sincerely, I've always found it quite hilarious.....until I read this letter. I'm very sure the originator of this joke meant no harm and was only going about his business of bringing out the funny sides of everything, but this letter has proven a point that some topics are too sensitive to be taken lightly.

Thankfully, Basketmouth has apologized. I really do hope his apology is accepted and he's forgiven by the 1 woman in 3 women that will be/has been raped, and the remaining 2 that won't fall victim (I pray the statistics get better).

The person wey write this letter vex no be small o

Is this letter up to 18 pages?