[.ca] Soul on Ice (ISBN 038533379X)

a challenging piece of work:
This autobiography upsetted alot of people, generally people who could not identify with what it was to be a young African American man post-civil rights. Cleaver reveals this to us, exposing even his own faults, the psychological enslavement of African America, and the reality of how it plays out in society. Despite those that believe that this book pertains only to this era are obviously blind to the fact that many of the same issues then exist today. What makes it worse is that many people are unaware of it now, the gimmicks of media and political correctness have only mastered camouflaging it. When I read this book, I cried, not just for my people during that era, but for my own children who will grow up in the same environment but not know it until it is too late. "Dont Believe the Hype!"- Public Enemy, 1987 AD.

Throw your fist up!:
Some people just can't accept the truth. Eldridge Cleaver tries to show the reality of blacks but the people who criticize it are the whites cant get a grip on reality. Ridicule is the burden on genious

STILL FACING MENTAL SLAVERY:
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.

Justification for the Unjustifiable:
I have seldom read anything as offensive as Cleaver's attempt to pass off rape as a "revolutionary" act. By his own admission he is a serial rapist,and if he'd served time for all of them would never even have been out of jail in the sixties in the first place! While the other content of this book isn't totally worthless, I found that Cleaver came off as a typical criminal, filled with reasons why SOMEBODY ELSE was responsible for everything he did wrong. The first step to self respect is to accept responsibility for one's actions, Cleaver has not done that, nor does he give the slightest indication that he ever will. If you want to read an autobiography of a panther read Huey Newton's, because with Newton, instead of self pity, there was substance and intelligence behind the anger.

About half of this book is brilliant and the other half . . .:
This is still one of the most important books of its era. It is very enlightening on such topics as racism suffered by Blacks in America, particulary Black males. If you want to know about the injustices that Black people have suffered around the 1960s, then you must read this book. But Cleaver's attempt to justify rape as a "revolutionary" act causes him to lose credibilty and also causes his cause to lose credibilty. This book would have been more powerful if Cleaver would have accepted responsibility for his crime, realizing rape cannot and never will be justifified.