new video loaded: The Rape Jokes We Still Laugh At
The Rape Jokes We Still Laugh At
In the #MeToo era, punch lines about sexual assaults in jail remain acceptable. But to Rodney Roussell, they're a painful reminder of the nine years he spent in prison, where he was raped and sold into sexual slavery.
He's the one who famously said, "I'd take a bullet for Donald Trump." Well, now that he's looking at prison time we'll see if he's willing to take a dick. People think that prisoners deserve whatever they get. A police report described him as 5-foot-9 and 140 pounds. Or as his cellmate put it, just right. I was forced to perform oral sex on several inmates. I was told: "You aren't going to fight back, are you sweetness?" You're going to be going back to the showers. And the only speed you're going to reach is 88 dudes per hour. Someone's going through that now. Someone's going through that right now. And to make a joke about it, it's a slap in the face. Being raped or sexually assault in prison is not part of the punishment. No one deserves that. We're still human beings. There's no guards that sit right here. There's nothing. There was nothing. It's like they had to to come from way over here, which is the booking area, to come and see anything that was going on in here. –Hey. –Meg, what the hell are you doing in here? –Shower time. –What are you doing with that loofah? –Don't worry about it. I was taking a shower and in comes a guy. Cartoon character: (screaming) You told me not to worry about it. He says, "Bitch, face the fucking wall. Or I'll break your fucking neck." I felt like dirt. I felt like I didn't even exist. I was just there. My bunk was tapped by a guy who then explained to me that he owned me. He had purchased me from the guy who anally raped me for $20 worth of commissary items. And I was now his property. He was my prison husband. If he wanted to utilize me to pay off gambling debts, I could be bartered. Talking to staff would have been the end of my life. Staff actually came on the tier, and my husband was saying, "Watch what I can make my ho do," and he made me dance for him and the staff members. They all laughed about it. Staff shook his head and walked out the door. Like, "Oh, man, y'all crazy." Next up is Pearl, A.k.a. Lil' Bitch. I wonder who Big Bitch is. That would be me. Lucky you. I had to sit down to urinate. I had to face the wall to shower. I was not allowed at any point in time to have any mention of me being a man or having a penis. I had to wear a tucker to pull back the genitals to give the appearance of a vagina. It's extremely painful to wear most of the time. I had to wear it all of the time. May just be as simple as me raising my voice and getting smacked, to me referring to myself as a he and getting punched. Any type of deviation from his rules were the threat of violence. I lost me here. I lost my humanity here. I lost my identity here. I lost myself here. So the memories are coming back, so you're mad and it's like I'm angry or something, at the building. It's a weird feeling. And the people who can make the change, the people who can affect the change make jokes about it. If the story is heard, and it's addressed, and we can stop making the joke of it, someone won't have to go through this one day. Someone can go to prison, do their time. They can rectify their mistake, they can get their second chance. We have to start thinking of it like that. They are people, they are just people and no person deserves that.
By Taige Jensen, Jonah M. Kessel, Leah Varjacques and Japhet Weeks •July 9, 2018
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