On Saturday, a clump of a few hundred out-of-towners gathered around the reflecting pool at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. They didn’t come with just signs. They came with faces painted with a darker, black-and-white take on clown makeup, blond dreadlock wigs, green cat-eye contacts and oversized T-shirts bearing a red cartoon character running with a hatchet (“the Hatchetman,” as the symbol is known). These are those Juggalos you may have heard about—or may not have heard about at all, if under-the-radar music subcultures aren’t your thing. They are fans of the metro Detroit-based “horrorcore” rap group Insane Clown Posse, and they came to Washington this weekend to send a message to the FBI—or “Fucking Bullshit Investigations , ” as at least one T-shirt in the crowd read.



In 2011, the FBI classified the Juggalos as a gang, right along with more infamous gangs like the Bloods and Crips and MS-13. That classification has had a real impact on the lives of ICP fans, as they’ve reportedly lost custody battles, had their attempts to enlist in the military rebuffed and even been fired from their jobs by virtue of their association with an official, FBI-recognized gang.



In a year of white working-class grievances, the Juggalos make for an especially curious test case, too. Hailing largely from the Midwest and South, Juggalos have a significant amount of demographic overlap with the less-educated whites who have been scrutinized as a distinct and powerful voting bloc in the wake of Donald Trump’s election. But most of their political statements up until now have been found in ICP’s song lyrics, like the band’s anti-Confederacy anthem “Fuck Your Rebel Flag” and the movement's insistence that everyone, regardless of race, sexuality or age, can be a Juggalo. “We made the name ‘Juggalo’ to represent all of us: men, women, black, white, brown, yellow, fat as fuck, skinny as a broomstick, gay, straight, bi, trans, young, old and folded and loopy, rich, poor,” Kevin Gill, a Juggalo and speaker at the rally, yelled into the mic, as cries of “Whoop whoop” and several expletive-laden choruses rippled through the crowd. They may have made up a motley and underwhelming crowd on Saturday, but their mobilization represents a particularly bizarre iteration of what so many pundits lament is sorely missing on the left: a nexus between white working-class demographics and a stated, passionate commitment to inclusion, diversity and civil liberties.



Of course, ICP will probably never be taken seriously as a political force. It was unclear how much of Saturday’s crowd was really there to protest the FBI or instead to “wild out” for the cameras (as ICP co-frontman Violent J warned against in a promotional video) while hearing their favorite artists perform for free. But there were, among the Faygo-spraying, yodeling masses, a few true believers in the cause. “The only reason we’re in this position today is [that] just like Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, the government has always feared when people come together for reasons they can’t comprehend,” Gill said. “True fuckin’ story.”



Intro by Katelyn Fossett



Above, Thomas, who would not give his last name, stands alongside other Juggalos on Sept. 16, 2017, as they prepare to march around the National Mall in Washington, D . C.

M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO