Soul on Ice

This book is incendiary, a Molotov cocktail lobbed into the unstill and unorganized masses of Black America, urging them to cast off their chains, regain their bodies, their minds, and burn White American Power to the ground. Written in the early 60s in Folsom Prison, Cleaver makes a moral case for Revolution (with a big R) and a tactical case for hatred, for blood&sex&violence joined together to break down everything stultifying and corrupt. The thesis is one third Marx, one third Freud, and one third rage, blended in what a much more modern and less impressive thinker calls "The Ghetto University."

I haven't quite figured out what this book means, more than 40 years on, and what place Cleaver's ideas should have, but damn is it show more impressive. show less

This was an interesting one. First, let's get the elephant out of the way: the author was a misogynistic homophobic man serving time for serial rape at the time of authorship. The text absolutely in no uncertain terms unapologetically blurts it out. The man had his problems some of which were no doubt due to the system of society that continues to this day. Because of this, there are some still relevant insights to be found here. The text also unconsciously makes his psychological shortcomings fairly blatant but they smacked me in the face when I became lulled by his eloquence. They almost seemed to rear up out of nowhere and disappear again as he ran with his ideas, though looking back their essence is streaked throughout.
The most show more vital asset of this collection of letters and essays is its earnestness. I believe the man was sincere in his outpouring. He was not the greatest philosopher/political thinker nor were some of his opinions anywhere near progressive or even sympathetic. There are a few weak points in the book. I don't mean his blatant misogyny, homophobia, or reference to his crimes as "an act of revolution" (though any are welcome to avoid this book based on those aspects of the man) but to a couple of sections of the book that possibly due to these backwards beliefs fell short of the immersion of the rest.
The first of these weak bits include the love letters to his attorney, there was nothing there at all for me other than some very awkward and corny lines to wonder at. This section of the book was titled Prelude to Love - Three letters, and the following section titled White Woman, Black Man were the weakest of the whole book. Although, I did enjoy the beginning and some ideas that are floating around in the text of the essay in this section titled The Allegory of the Black Eunuchs. The first fourth of it opens onto the attitudes of young blacks towards older blacks (at least within prison) in a conversation while eating beans. However, the rest of the piece degenerates along the lines of a sex-based discussion of Amazonian black women and the always more desirable white women.
Overall, I'm glad I read it. It is also somewhat demoralizing to have it confirmed through this book that certain points of his anguish are still points of anguish in the American landscape today. I would recommend this book if you're curious and are willing to accept a snippet of sincere life experience and raw individual thought regardless of its repulsiveness or its victimhood or its crimes. show less

As I read I felt in the presence of a man without doubt of any kind. I read it with a sense of loss, however: an awareness of lost momentum, lost years, lost confidence that something radically better was about to happen for African Americans, something I believe Cleaver thought when he wrote this work. There is no doubt that parts of this work are so deeply misogynistic and homophobic that it's difficult to defend my positive take on it. The review is not for the man or his beliefs as a whole, but for the power of this book to open a window into a strange and unsettling era, and to come away with more understanding of that era.

For example, Cleaver in one section justifies his rape of (more than one?) woman as a natural outcome of the show more hundreds of years of white men raping black women, and killing black men, rather than a private act of violence for which Cleaver feels moral responsibility. Just as John Brown (who Cleaver canonizes) is a murderous lunatic in one context, for killing people for the cause of abolition, in another context, for example after Lincoln declared war, killing people becomes just. In this manner Cleaver forgives himself for his acts of violence toward women (or actually never gets around to thinking he would need forgiveness).

A good companion book to this memoir is Susan Brownmiller's [b:Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape|103180|Against Our Will Men, Women and Rape|Susan Brownmiller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320435643s/103180.jpg|99474].The matter of fact way that Cleaver suggests the violation of women's bodies is an act of self-identity, as well as an act of war, is repulsive and horrible, and yet it reflects the truths of almost any war zone ever documented. It also gives insight to the reader, in a very visceral way, how fundamental rifts in identity politics between Black Power and Feminism clashed and contradicted one another in this era. show less

After having watched a PBS documentary about The Black Panthers, I was curious about Cleaver's writings.

Unlike Malcolm X, though they bear a lot of similarities, it appears from this collection of essays that Cleaver educated himself largely during his prison stays. He, too, was a member of the Nation of Islam, but quit the religion at the same time that Malcolm did in favor of more inclusive, if more radical, perspectives. Cleaver's essays run the gamut from boxing to slavery, but each is a deep dive into how a topic ties back to an underlying and deep racist bent in the culture and politics of the nation.

Sadly, he is also like Malcolm in his view on women, though Cleaver's essays go further into sexual politics - a particularly show more oppressive and hateful sexual politics. These sections of the book dropped the rating for it.

On the plus side, his essay The Christ and His Teachings is one of the best meditations on how religion has been used down through the ages to divide and support hate.

4 bones!!!!!
Recommended, with the earlier caveat show less

Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver is a memoir and collection of essays originally written in Folsom State Prison in 1965, and published three years later in 1968. In this time of Black Lives Matter it is a book all teens should read.

The book is divided into four sections. They cover the author’s time in prison and his crimes. His coming to a knowledge of who he is as a black man. His romantic interest in his lawyer. What it means to be black and have your own sexual identity.

The first two sections cover material still relevant today. People expected Eldridge Cleaver to be apologetic about his crimes. He, however, pointed out that those who expected this were rich, fat, and supporting a war against the Vietnamese who were starving and show more terrified. The greater crimes of the rich, he claimed, balanced out his crimes and drug use.

However, he also longed to be clean of drugs and to learn more about black nationalism and communist politics. He felt that being black caused him to have a lesser place in society which was unfair.

These problems of black being treated as less than white in the workplace and in society still resonate today. The wars fought by our rich nation against impoverished nations still exists. The idea that black men are viewed differently if they have sexual attraction to white women still exists.

This book opened my eyes to how much hasn’t changed in 55 years. It gave me a feeling that I must do my part to bring more change. show less

What began as a genuinely compelling look at a young man with a lot of anger and little direction, became a story of a man completely sure of himself, and almost entirely unrelatable. I definitely understand why he was angry, and early on he actually makes some valid points, and even mixes in a little humor. However, when he goes into diatribes about homosexuality, it makes me stop and reassess the man. It comes off a little hypocritical and weak minded. The worth of this book to me was a look at a life that I will never know. I'll never be the minority with the kind of problems he faced. God willing I'll never end up in jail. There were parts of this book that were eye opening and make me rethink my own opinion on some things. The rest show more of it is the ramblings of a man full of rage, hurt, and aching to find his path. show less

This is a short book of loosely related ideas by an ex-convict. Soul on Ice is Cleaver’s attempt to understand who he was as a black American growing up in the 1950s and 1960s.. I wouldn't recommend this book as it is very sexist, misogynistic and violent. The conclusion tries to make amends with black women but I’m not sure it succeeds.
The title refers to the Black Man’s existence while under racial, economic and sexual domination by White Men as seen through Cleaver’s personal experience in and out of jail. He was jailed for marijuana possession then went on to rape.
The book offers more than you might imagine but I’m not sure it would justify a reading unless you are into ethnic studies, detention ministry, or 1960s show more literature.
Years ago, I found a hard cover copy which had photos but I sold it figuring I’d never get around to having the time to read it. I came across this paperback copy and read it. I remember among the hardcover version a photo of Cleaver’s confirmation certificate from when he was in juvenile hall at Los Padrinos, Downey. That facility happens to still exist. I work with other juvenile hall inmates and lived next door to Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles. Cleaver talks about what happened during that time and how he became disgusted with the priest giving the sacramental preparation classes. He turned to atheism and then Marxist thought. That led him to National of Islam racist conspiracy theories. Most of Soul on Ice are his own additions to the Nation of Islam views on race hatred of all White People. His exposure to Thomas Merton the Catholic monastic led him reject religion once and for all. Cleaver understood Merton’s thoughts on monasticism to be identical to that of his own prison life. Cleaver never goes back to any type of religious orientation except for African tribal elements.
This book was published in 1968, the same year as the major Tet Offensive in Vietnam which made most television watching Americans, like Cronkite; turn against Westmoreland’s command of the military. The Assassinations of King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy followed Malcom X’s earlier death in 1965. This book is dripping in anger and frustration with no way to make sense of civic life as lived by African Americans during the Vietnam War.
The Russians were actually able to influence the Vietnam War through funding dissident groups like the communist party and Black Panthers as they called the war unlawful and changed media coverage since the Russians wanted to the US leave the country so that the North Vietnamese could easily conquer the south. We know this from the FBI files on their monitoring of subversives. Cleaver’s thinking is exacting what the Russians were hoping to spread within the US.
Cleaver spends a lot of time criticizing James Baldwin’s writing and revering the memory of Malcom X after Malcom had left Elijah Mohammed’s Nation of Islam. Cleaver’s early life was spent in Watts, Los Angeles until he went to state prison. Julius Erving (Dr. J) says in his autobiography Erving that he when he first met Lew Alcindor on the blacktop basketball court, Alcindor was reading Soul on Ice. show less