The Vice Lords: A study of Black Ghetto Culture
Bookmark this page

This study by Lincoln Keiser in the 1960s of a minority or sub-culture in contemporary American society (Chicago) was the first case study to report on an urban sub-group. This case study was carried out in the tradition of the participant observer. Keiser"s main goal was to demonstrate the systematic nature of Vice Lords social life.
Similarities with other gangs of similar age and composition irrespective of ethnic identification that operate in depressed areas of American cities:

1) Delinquent / criminal / violent way of life seen as desirable
2) Such behaviour provides status for organisations and members where other means of gaining status are blocked.
3) These patterns of behaviour can be understood as instrumental adaptations for survival in a desperate environment.

Preface by Keiser:

The Vice Lord Nation is a large confederation of street corner groups whose home is the streets, alleys, and gangways of Chicago"s major Black Ghettos.
I chose the Vice Lords for two reasons:
1) They were reputed to be one of the largest and best-organised delinquent gangs in Chicago.
2) By chance established friendship with a member.

First part of research: 1964-65; solely work with informants
Second part of research: 1966-67; after social anthropology graduate training. Did field research with one sub-group of the Vice Lords (The City Lords)- royalties were offered to be shared in return for their co-operation.

To make sense of the wide behavioural variations I used Clifford Geertz"s definitions of culture and social system: "One of the more useful ways of distinguishing between culture and social system is to see culture as an ordered system of meaning and symbols in terms of which social interaction takes place and to see social system as the pattern of interaction itself. On the one level there is the framework of beliefs, expressive symbols and values in terms of which individuals define their world; on the other there is the ongoing process of interactive behaviour whose persistent form we call social structure. Culture is the fabric of meaning in terms of which human beings interpret their experience and guide their actions. Social structure is the form that action takes, the actual existing network of social relations.î These abstractions help the anthropologist organise his observations. Own interpretation biased by own point of view.

The Vice Lords

- Why have many anthropologists and sociologists in the past thought that the research techniques used to study small-scale societies could not be used effectively in a modern, urban setting.
The relatively simple life of a tribal village can perhaps be described in purely verbal terms but the uniformities found in urban life can for the most part be expressed only statistically. In the town few generalisations of any validity can be obtained without the use of social survey techniques.
"When studying an entire primitive society in this way (using anthropological methods) one can be fairly certain of having witnessed the full range of behaviour that members of that society hold in high regard, given the relatively constant constraints of the physical environment. However, when this methods is applied to subcultures contained within a single society, it is apt to lead to fallacious results.

- What are the general problems he shared with other anthropologists trying to do fieldwork?
There is another important factor that is not directly related to the urban setting as such. This derives from the racial situation in the United States. I was a White working in a Black ghetto area, and this had definite effects on my research. Then there is the problem of getting established. This involves settling physically in the area; becoming adjusted to living in an alien environment; and establishing the necessary social relationships so that one can begin gathering data. Data gathering itself presents problems. On one level this involves data-gathering techniques, but on another level there is the problem of what out of the almost infinite array of human behavioural aspects, one chooses to record in the first place.
The anthropologist is not always conscious of this orientation while he is actively involved in field research, and thus he is not always aware of how it is affecting what he records. The anthropologist"s emotional reactions to the social and cultural setting in which he is working is another source of problems. Having to interact in social situations where one does not know the cultural significance of various actions places a tremendous emotional strain on the individual, and affects his relationships with the people he is studying. Also, although the anthropologists tries to approach his work as dispassionately as possible, he is a human being, and he reacts to situations in terms of his own values and ideas. How the anthropologist handles these feelings is one of the most serious problems of field research. Finally, after the research has been completed, there is the problem of writing up the material into some kind of coherent account.

-How did he make his choice of area and topic?
In 1963, he had a part-time job as a waiter in the dining room of a luxurious retirement home in Chicago. Through his job he got to know Jesse and Al, who were dishwashers. They never became close friends, but they did get to know each other well enough so that his presence did not interrupt their normal conversations. They discussed the Cobras because Al had met a girl from their gang. Keiser heard enough to make him aware that in the world of fighting clubs, there was a highly interesting cultural and social system in operation.

How does he explain the importance of "making friends out of strangers" and how does this differ from social relationships in small-scale societies?
In small-scale societies there are few, if any strangers. Everyone knows everyone else, and knows them in a variety of social contexts. There are lines of potential social interaction laid out at birth among almost anyone everyone, and individuals activate these at particular times. In the city, most people are strangers, and making friends out of strangers is an important and continual social process. Friends are made out of strangers through the interaction that takes place in particular social contexts. Keiser"s initial contact with Black fighting clubs was a result of a process of making friends out of strangers that is an integral part of urban social systems.

Why was the work-place the only area where Keiser could form a social relationship with a Black?
In their society at the time he met Jesse and Al, Whites who formed relationships with Blacks, usually, although not always, did so in the context of a job. Middle-class Whites who formed relationships with lower-class Blacks, almost always formed them in the job context. Racism limited the kinds of jobs open to Blacks, and thus limited the kinds of jobs in which I could have gotten to know ghetto-dwelling Blacks.

What questions was he curious to answer?
He had heard references made to a number of different gangs, He had heard it said that people had "heart" and "reps". How did all this work? What was the nature of the subgroups? How were they differentiated, and how did they connect with one another? What were the social identities, and how were they connected to one another? What were the social identities, and how were they connected to form social roles? What were the beliefs, concepts, and values which the members of the clubs held, and how did they fit with the set of social groups and social identities? Basically, what is the nature of this social and cultural system and how does it work?

How did he establish relationships with the members of the group?
No one, much less a White, can go into an area inhabited by a club and initiate a research project. He approached this problem again through means of a job. He was offered employment with the Social service department, and handled cases of boys seventeen through twenty years old. The court caseworker"s job consisted of counselling individuals referred by the court; thus he became acquainted with the members of three groups.

How did his role as caseworker conflict with his role as anthropologist?
The Social Service Department was interested in learning about the nature of fighting clubs, and he was given permission to question persons referred to him by the court about features of club life. This posed problems. His role as caseworker conflicted in some ways with his role as anthropologist. As a caseworker conflicted in some ways with his role as anthropologist. As a caseworker, his primary purpose was to help the people referred to him make the kind of adjustment to the urban world that would prevent their coming into conflict with the rules and enforcement agencies of predominantly White, middle-class Chicago. This meant he was trying to change behaviour in terms of his own value system. As an anthropologist, however, it was crucial to try not to judge behaviour relative to his own values, much less to change it. He was limited in his use of his "clients" as anthropological informants.

How did he establish contact outside the court context?
Because he was connected to the court, many boys were reluctant to give information about their club. In spite of these difficulties, he was able to gather some basic material. The people most willing to talk about their group were the Vice Lords, and therefore, most of his information was about that club.
While talking to a "client" referred by the court, he was told about a woman who had taught in a West Side School, and who had become close friends with several Vice Lords. He contacted her, and she agrees to introduce me to Sonny, one of the Vice Lords she knew. At the time he met Sonny, he also met a Lord called Goliath. In the next year, Sonny, Goliath and Keiser went to parties together, met in bars, and visited each other"s homes. During this time , he also met a few other members of the club and collected several life histories. It happened that he and Goliath got on particularly well, and in the course of the year, became good friends.

How did he find a place to live? What were the advantages of living on the North Side?
Finding an apartment proved more difficult than he had anticipated. Most of the apartments in Lawndale are owned by White absentee landlords, and they were highly suspicious of his motives for wanting to live in the ghetto.
Goliath ruled out other available apartments because they afforded too much opportunity for ambush attacks. Finally, after they were unable to find anything suitable in the area around 15th St, they looked in the North Side ghetto, and found an apartment there. But on the North Side he was at least located in a Black neighbourhood; he was able to question informants in surroundings that were relatively natural to them; and he was able to give "sets" (parties) for the Vice Lords that were not only useful in gaining rapport, but which also gave him the opportunity to observe behaviour in this important social context.

What things were harder and what things were easier than when he"d one his fieldwork in a mountain village in Afghanistan?
Easier- He lived in an apartment that, although dingy, had hot and cold running water, a bathroom, a stove and a refrigerator; he bought his food in supermarkets and restaurants he was accustomed to using, and the language spoken was generally similar to his own.
More difficult- Getting accustomed to living with the possibility of robbery and ambush. Goliath took many precautions in choosing an apartment that had a well-lighted entrance and hallways. They kept a pistol in the apartment, along with several wooden clubs. Goliath always put a match in the door jams before they left so that he could tell if anyone had forced open the door while they were gone and might be hidden in the apartment when they came back. At night he put boards and empty cans in front of the windows so that if someone tried to break in, they would be awoken by the noise. It took Keiser a while to get used to taking these precautions without getting extremely nervous.

How did he use the standard methods of PO and interviewing informants?
PO consisted of observing behaviour while hanging out on the streets, going to bars, attending parties, visiting friends and relatives, and simply driving about the West Side with members of the club. As a participant observer, he was involved in the first stages of one actual gang fight, and was part of the preparations for another that never materialised. But he could never fully participate in the life on the streets.
Some could accept Keiser, but others had such string antagonisms that they were unable to be friends with him. They tolerated his presence, but for the most part ignored him. Finally, there were some individuals who could not control their hatred towards Whites, and in a few instances it boiled into the open aimed at him. When this happened, he had to simply walk away.

In what ways was he an outsider?
The history of Black-White hatred separated them. Cultural differences also underlined their separateness. He dressed in casual clothes-Levis and a sport shirt- but these were different from the clothes the Vice Lords wore. He was not conversant in street-slang and he did not act properly in certain social situations.

What problems did he have writing a diary and taping life stories?
Each evening he wrote as much of his observations as could be remembered. It would have been best to have carried a small notebook with him so that he could have taken notes on the spot. Initially he did this, but it made most Vice Lords so uneasy for him to take out his notebook and write down something that I decided to stop. Further, much of the social interaction between Vice Lords that he observed occurred while individuals were riding his car and could not be written in his notebook at the time. He attempted to remember as much as possible, but at the end of the day he always knew that much had been forgotten.
Interviews with informants were another source of data. He conducted structured interviews and gathered life histories. A tape-recorder was used to record this material. He was able to record highly detailed accounts of interviews that he could not have written by hand. Transcribing the tapes was the main difficulty.

How did he decide on the structure and what to include in certain topics?
In recording life histories he simply asked the informant to tell about his life. The only questions asked were either those necessary to clarify something he did not understand or those necessary to get further amplification of an incident he felt was interesting and important. Structured interviews were organised around particular topics. These were derived primarily from his observations. If he thought something he had observed needed amplification, he focused on this in a structured interview.

Why didn"t he look at "social network"?
Social life forms a system. When looking at social interaction as a system, social anthropologists often employ the ideas of social groups, and social roles in getting at patterns and regularities. It is much more complicated than this, but what he has described is basic to what social anthropologists do. In any case, it was this orientation that directed his research; the questions that he asked and the data which he recorded were dictated by it.
But he did not ask other important questions and collect other important data. For example, he did not look at Vice Lord behaviour in terms of social in terms of social network. After becoming acquainted with the network idea, it was evident that certain aspects of Vice Lord life would have made better sense if ordered in terms of the idea. He had not thought in terms of social networks, however, and therefore had not collected the necessary data.

What emotional reaction problems did he have?
On the streets of the ghetto, he did not know what was, and what was not, potentially dangerous; and he did not understand the significance of most actions and many words.
This feeling of helplessness was very difficult for him to handle. In the early part of his research it often made him feel so nervous and anxious that the events occurring around him seemed to merge in a blur of meaningless action. He despaired of ever making any sense out of anything. Vice Lords sensed his feelings and he could see it made some people uncomfortable. This increased the difficulty of gaining the rapport necessary to carry out successful research.
He also had emotional responses to events that stemmed from his own value system. How to handle these responses was another difficulty. There were certain aspects of Vice Lord life that he found particularly distasteful. In the early part of his research, they made him upset and uneasy. Later, at times he found himself getting angry. These reactions often made it difficult for him to retain objectivity.

What problems did he have when writing up the data?
Writing up the data into some kind of coherent account involves at least two problems. First, the anthropologist must decide to be included in the work, and second, he must decide on the data to be included in the work, and second, he must decide on the manner in which to organise and present the data that is included. The first problem is often difficult to solve because in writing an account it is necessary to describe living people, many of whom are close friends. This is especially difficult when the study may be read by members of the society in which it was carried out.
Keiser believes that most anthropologists feel an obligation to write nothing that could inure the people in the group in which they worked. On the other hand, the anthropologist wants to write the best possible account he can, and information that members of a society might not want known might be important for understanding how particular social and cultural systems work. If information was given in confidence, then the anthropologist has the moral obligation to keep that confidence. In other instances, the anthropologist may have information not given in confidence that people still might not want others to know about. One obvious solution is to change dates, names and places, but this is not always effective. Then, in Keiser"s opinion, the particular information should not be included if it is really injurious to the people involved. The difficulty comes in deciding whether something is really injurious. I do not think that there is any simple, clear-cut answer to this problem. The anthropologist must be as sensitive as possible to the feelings and problems of the people he is describing, and write his account accordingly.
In trying to solve the second problem, that of organisation and presentation, his theoretical orientation was as important as it was in gathering data. The theoretical orientation provided a framework on which he tried to construct a coherent account. His main goal was to demonstrate the systematic nature of Vice Lord social life. In order to do this, however, it was necessary to take a cultural perspective as well, for aspects of culture related to patterns of social interaction in important ways. I started with definitions of the cultural and social systems. The social system was defined as the ordered system of on-going social interaction; and the cultural system as the ordered system of beliefs and values in terms of which social interaction takes place.

See also Pg 460 in Keesing

Other Notes in this Category

1. Class and Caste
2. Cultural Ecology and Environmentalism
3. Development versus Dependency theory
4. Ethnicity / Ethnic Groups
5. Exam Questions
6. Exam Tips
7. Functionalism
8. IB Topic List
9. Malinowski and Functionalism
10. Poverty
11. Structuralism
12. Symbolism
13. The symbolic and social meanings- of Space
14. The Vice Lords: A study of Black Ghetto Culture

Didn't find this useful?

• Visit Coursework.Info for over 14,000 GCSE, A-Level and University Essays