Tales From The DJ Booth: Will The FBI Come After Us Next?

On Saturday, September 16th, at roughly 2pm EST, Detroit rapper Violent J of Insane Clown Posse addressed thousands of people who were gathered in Washington, D.C. at steps of The National Mall. "Taking away someone’s right to an opinion is the same thing as sewing their butthole shut," J proclaimed loudly over a large sound system. Fifty years after Dr. King’s "I Have A Dream" speech, the struggles of a divided nation are being addressed en masse. However, this time, it took a clown.

Scheduled on the same day as the right-wing Mother Of All Marches, an AntiFa counter-protest and a wedding, the Juggalo March On Washington was easily the most well-organized, morally upstanding and literate of the three rallies (I cannot speak for the wedding, but I assume it involved at least one drunk bridesmaid starting a fight). Not surprisingly to myself—but clearly unexpected on the part of non-Juggalos—Violent J focused on the topic of discrimination, emphasizing that their cause has nothing to do with music or the fans but, rather, the rights of people to not be discriminated against. The insane clown even went as far as to say that he would march for the rights of "two dudes to marry," but also, would march for "the right of a redneck to keep his neck red." On the other side of the block, teenagers in hoodies threw rocks at old men, who responded by waving American flags and screaming racist epitaphs.

Clowns, ladies and gentlemen. The clowns were the reasonable ones. Are we taking notes yet? I want to make sure the history books don’t skip over this chapter.

I know that Exotic doesn’t need another article from Ray about Juggalos, but like J said, this has little to do with Juggalos. What happens when they come for sex workers? For those not in the loop, the FBI classified anyone who identifies as a "Juggalo" as a gang member—next to organized criminal enterprises including MS-13, Bloods, Crips, Tumblr Feminists, etc. If the FBI can make it illegal to be a mallrat with a CD player in the ’90s, (who decided to get a Hatchetman tattoo on a whim) they sure as hell can come after people who get naked for un-taxed income. Even the media is beginning to set things up for this scenario; whenever a shooting, DUII or stabbing occurs anywhere near a strip club, the headlineleads with the words "strip" and "club." Compare this to any other type of business. I saw a dude get popped in front of a Starbucks once. Sure, it was an Oakland-area Starbucks, but I don’t recall a "Second Coffee Shop Shooting" news story. The bottom line is that classifying groups of people for purposes of discrimination is still a thing. You can access every known fact ever recorded, using a cheap-ass device that most people carry in their pocket (this is how I found out about the Juggalo March), but we haven’t breached the "get off my lawn" era.

Orwellian redefinition of terms like "fascist" have been bastardized by (well-meaning) useful idiots. In reality, fascism is quiet. It lurks in the fine print. Who fucking cares if a bunch of rednecks want to wave around a Confederate flag? That thing was probably made in China, and when Jeb and Earl finally get around to reading the history texts, perhaps the trend of waving a losing team’s flag will die down. Same goes for the extreme left—every generation has an angry, rebellious and over-the-top group of folks who don’t see the irony in trying to beat love into strangers using mace and trash can lids.

The real "fascism" occurs when things stop being up for debate. In a literal sense, one could say that things like math, science and even mortality operate under a "fascist" set of rules, in that they are firm and unavoidable rules. But, when social constructs (meaning "government," not "everything seen as problematic by regressives") enact firm and unavoidable rules, you get things like Juggalos being labeled a gang. We will see another backlash against the sex industry in our time—this happens in waves. Whether it will come from radical-right-wing traditionalists, or radical left-wing regressives, is anyone’s guess. That’s just the distraction, though. The FBI put together a list of gangs based on the reports of police departments that need more funding.

What is currently happening in Portland, in terms of police funding and public support for armed officers?

So, there’s my reasoning. Any marginalized group that can be seen as tangential to criminal activities can (and probably will) end up on a list somewhere. What happens when "stripper" becomes a note on your file—one that can be used to profile you during police stops, violate your probation, get you fired from your day job, etc? We meet at secret clubs after 2:30AM to drink booze after hours, play poker and refer to ourselves as "industry" like some sort of...gang?

One more thing...

I always find it funny, when groups that are inclusive enough to transcend race, class, gender, sex and age form under another banner or identifying label, said banner or label becomes a target. I really don’t mean to compare strippers to Juggalos, but if you think about it, there is more diversity under the roof of a Portland strip club than there is outside of the club’s doors. Should the sex industry all come together to "whoop whoop" as one, will we all be profiled? DJs, writers, bouncers, bartenders, promoters, that guy Jed, minor dancers, veteran dancers and, well, dancers...we are up for the chopping block soon. They might attack stoners first. Hopefully, they go for the hipsters. But, "first, they came for the Juggalos...and I was silent."