Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Soul on Ice
Book Review: One of the more over-looked pieces of the time
Summary: 5 Stars
In this piece, Eldridge Cleaver writes about many times, experiences, and happenings during one of the most critical times in the 20th century. After reading this, I'm shocked it isn't given the respect it is surely due. He talks about various people, such as the contrast of styles between James Baldwin and Richard Wright, the assassination of Malcolm X and the aftermath it left from Folsom Prison(where he was serving time) as well as other places around the country, and an eye-opening examination between himself, two of his comrades, and another fellow prisoner, which was shocking and all too surreal to say the least. Like other books which has been previously written during that time, there is still major relevance for it in the 21st century.Book Review: Over my head
Summary: 4 Stars
Eldridge Cleaver is spectacular. However, with my youth, I think some of his info just passed over my head because I couldn't relate. I did enjoy the book for what it was worth, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to partake in something that caused so much history in life.Book Review: Reveals why the black man has an inferiority complex.
Summary: 5 Stars
Cleaver gives us tremendous insight into the black man's inferiority complex and how it was fed and bred to him by the white man, so that it may alleviate the white man's own inferiority complex. This book reveals the white power struggle to control the mind, body, and spirit of the black man - a relevant and true account even as we enter into the 21st century. Judging from the present injustices and the apathy of the black masses, as well as the disproportionate black prison population, it is certainly true that the white man has ruled the back man's mind and body; however, Cleaver's testimony is proof that their spirit is unconquerable.Book Review: SOUL ON ICE
Summary: 4 Stars
Soul on Ice, written by Eldrige Cleaver is a collection of essays (written during his 9 years in Folsom State Prison during the 1960's) in which Cleaver discovers his racial identity. "I knew I was black, but never really stopped to take stock of what i was involved in. I met life as an individual and took my chances." Cleaver was sentenced 9 years for raping a white woman. Cleaver felt his crime was a way to "spit" on the white man's values and women. He lived his life only to benefit himself. After meeting with his attorney, he realizes the value of listening and absorbing what another human being has to say. "The price of hating other human beings is loving one's self less." Cleaver, educating himself in prison, also writes "In prison those things held and denied from the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all."
Cleaver becomes especially interested in the writings of Thomas Merton, particularly his excerpt on the "New York Black Ghetto: Harlem." After many religious endeavors, Cleaver found himself most intrigued by the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Malcolm X appealed to the black convicts caught in the vicious prison paroll cycle, like himself. One aspect in which Cleaver felt most attracted to in Malcolm was that the society owed a debt to prisoners and not vice versa. Malcolm X did not "compromise truth to have favor with the white power structure." The American tactic was to emmasculate the black leadership and to manipulate them. The unique black leader who would defy white power would ultimately end up dead, in prison, or forced out of the country. Classic illustrations of this policy are the careers of Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Dubois, and Paul Robeson. White America crushes the black leaders while inflating the images of Uncle Tom's (black on the surface, white on the inside)and celebrities. Power is taken out of political and economic context and plainly debased to the level of good sportsmanship. James Baldwin was an author who wrote "Native Son" and "White Negro." Cleaver, inspired by Baldwin, felt that police brutatily was not caused by the hatred for the black man, but for social, economical, and political reasons. Blacks, having their freedom for approximately 100 years as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation, were still treated as "part of someone's invetory of assests."
After the most violent negro uprisings, the Burning of Watts, the white power structure pacifies the black community by appointing John Roseboro, an African American baseball player for the dodgers, to consultant for community relations. Cleaver also writes about the Vietnam War. Black soldiers are called upon to sacrafice their lives for freedom in Vietnam. In Watts they are killed because of their desire for freedom. Cleaver felt the black man should stay and die here for a better life.
Cleaver's first imprisonment in 1954, for a drug charge, set the tone for his next 9 year term. Cleaver hung a poster of a white woman in his cell like the other prisoners. One of the guards came by and tore the poster down. The guard would only allow Cleaver to hang a picture of a black woman. Cleaver realizes that his attraction to the white women is not because of beauty or sexual appeal but because of their status and symbol. The white woman displays a symbol of freedom while the black woman is a symbol of slavery. "I will not be free until the day i can have a white woman in my bed and a white man minds his own business."
Although Cleaver's actions were not always moral nor did he go about things in a peaceful way, his fight was to allow the black race to revive their eradicated identity. From the moment the blacks were brought to this country from Africa, the white man imposed their culture and heritage upon them. Cleaver's quote, dealing with the white woman in bed, hits the nail on the head. He does not care for trivial freedoms and rights such as drinking from the same water fountain or riding at the front of the bus, he cares for the freedom where he can do what he wants, when he wants, without the white man looking over his shoulder. "One task that we have in the black community is a coupe de'etat against our present leadership, to strip them from that machinery that controls the community. So that new ideas and new people can percualate up, then we can have a new agenda."
I thorougly enjoyed this book because Cleaver moves from hate and violence towards an understanding of himself and humanity. I recommend this book to anyone who is willing to gain a better understanding of the black struggle in the 1960's.
Book Review: STILL FACING MENTAL SLAVERY
Summary: 1 Stars
CLEAVER CLEARLY STATES HE PRACTICE RAPING LIGHT SKINNED BLACK WOMEN (BECAUSE HE THOUGHT DARK SKIN WOMEN WERE INFERIOR) UNTIL HE COULD GET HIS HANDS ON WHITE WOMEN. HE HAS ZERO RESPECT FOR WOMEN OF ANY RACE AND HE WAS JUST ANOTHER CONCEITED BLACK MAN WHO THINKS THAT SLAVERY WAS JUST BETWEEN THEM AND WHITE MEN. HE IS VERY VIOLENT AND HIS IGNORANCE GLADFULLY BROUGHT HIM TO HIS GRAVE.