University of Virginia Library

Cleaver, More Than Obscenity

By Mike Russell

Television interviews and newspaper
reports reflect little of the
inner capabilities that a man possesses.
Eldridge Cleaver has for
some time appeared to the public as
a "loud, obscene nigger," with no
justifiable reason for expressing
himself with such belligerent vehemence.

"Soul On Ice" is Cleaver's first
journey into the world of hardbacks,
and the book itself reveals a
great deal more about the man and
his actions than the public interviews
he has given. With intelligence
and reason, Cleaver builds a revealing
picture of the oppressed
black man in this country, his goals;
emotions and frustrations.

Cleaver received his education in
a slightly irregular fashion. His primary
school years were spent in
schools in the Negro ghetto of Los
Angeles. While serving time in three
of California's state prisons, he acquired
his higher education, primarily
through the impetus of one
or two individuals.

"Soul On Ice" divides itself into
four parts, reflecting four stages of
Cleaver's awareness, of his consciousness
to the social and psychological
conditions which influence
his life.

Frustrated Struggle

"Letters From Prison," the first
of the four parts, deals primarily
with his own struggle to overcome
the frustrations and hatreds that
plagued him, and form some logical
perspective on the world he lives in.
Early in the book he speaks about
his imprisonment, relating details of
his crime, rape. He began with
black women, and when he had the
modus operandi that suited him, he
"crossed the tracks" in search of
the white women. He did this consciously
and out of a desire to
avenge his race for the white man's
oppression of the Negro. When he
was returned to prison he wrote:

"After I returned to prison, I
took a long look at myself and, for
the first time in my life, admitted
that I was wrong, that I had gone
astray - astray not so much from
the white man's law as from being
human, civilized - for I could not
approve the act of rape. Even
though I had some insight into my
own motivations, I did not feel
justified. I lost my self-respect. My
pride as a man dissolved and my
whole fragile moral structure
seemed to collapse, completely
shattered."

Spiritual Evolution

The rest of this section deals
with his educational and spiritual
evolution. From a position of ignorance
and blind hatred he
climbed to a new plateau of awareness
and from this awareness he saw
that existing conditions were inhumane,
and that every black man
must achieve a state of consciousness
that negates patient apathy
with the black man's position.
Cleaver ends the section by saying,
"We shall have our manhood. We
shall have it or the earth will be
leveled by our attempts to gain it."

The second section of the book
deals with the political awareness of
Cleaver and the black movement.
He initiates the section with an
essay on the white man's attempts
to suppress the black man's political
awareness, and the long struggle
to gain token recognition of the
Afro-Americans. He takes the white
society as being filled with "white
enslavers, colonizers, imperialists,
and neo-colonialists." And he
recognizes the structure of reality,
laying the primary burden for improving
the black situation where it
belongs, on the black man himself.

Black Oppression

His second essay deals with the
oppression of the black man in all
aspects of life, social as well as
political. The white man has relegated
to the black the duty of being
the body while whitey remains the
brain. It relates the growing social
realizations that the black communities
are developing, from the
loudness of Cassius Clay, to the
racism of Elijah Muhammad, to the
thought of Malcolm X. Once again,
he credits the surge of development,
not to the white but to the
black man.

"Notes on a Native Son" deals
with some of the past leaders and
writers in the black movement,
particularly James Baldwin. Baldwin
he feels is trying to pass off the
idea of the "White Negro." "There
is in James Baldwin's work the
most grueling, agonizing, total
hatred of the blacks, particularly of
himself, and the most shameful,
fanatical, fawning sycophantic love
of the white that one can find in
the writings of any black American
writer of note in our times."
Cleaver blasts this entire thought
pattern which permeates much of
the work of black writers. He, with
Norman Mailer, recognizes the new
surge in literary consciousness for
what it is, the undeniable development
of the black man's cognizance
of his position, and his determination
to rectify the situation, regardless
of the consequences.

"Rallying Round the Flag" and
"Black Man's Stake in Vietnam"
both deal with present political
realities of the blacks' situation. In
the former he deals with the struggle
of the right against the left for
the control of the reins of American
power, and the relationship of
the black man to this struggle. The
latter deals with the altogether too
real situation of Vietnam, and the
responsibility of the black man in
that war. He raises serious questions
as to whether the black man should
willingly participate in the war,
describing it as a sham. Many black
men feel that after they've fought
for their country, that country will
recognize their rights. Unfortunately
those who return find a different
reality, they are still black, still
poor, and still oppressed.

Part three is titled: "Prelude to
Love - Three Letters." In these
letters he begins a relationship with
his attorney (a female) that reveals
some of the inner longing of
Cleaver to be recognized as the man
he is. He offers her no walls, no
barriers to building a personal
human relationship.

As a finale, Cleaver launches
into what is to prove his most
philosophical series of essays on the
White woman and the Black man.
All four pieces deal with the
sexual-psychological structure of
our society. He speaks as a believer
in the class society, blaming the
class structure in this country,
which is consistent also with the
color line, as being responsible for a
great deal of the frustrations and
oppression that the black man
suffers. Of the four, his best piece is
the essay titled Convalescence, dealing
with the rediscovery by the
white man of his body, and the uses
derived thereof.

"Soul On Ice" is a masterpiece.
It traces the development of a man
from his bitter origins of hate and
frustration to a position of awareness,
not only that he is a black
man with obstacles to overcome,
but as a human being, needing the
cooperation and love of other
human beings, whether they be
white or black. He gives credit to
those who are struggling for the
existence of mankind, and attacks
with vehemence those who uphold
the status quo, which he visualizes
as being anti-human. Despite his
outbursts in public, Cleaver leaves
the overall picture of a sensitive
man and writer, who, unlike many
others, is not afraid to tell it like it
is.