White Woman, Black Man, The Allegory of the Black Eunuchs Summary and Analysis

Cleaver devotes the entire chapter to an exchange with an elderly, fat black man. At the beginning, Cleaver and two other inmates are seated at a table. The man approaches and the inmates immediately dub him, "Lazarus." Cleaver says the three younger men believe this older man to be one who has sold out to the white man's demands on black people and are immediately against the man for this reason. They begin their abuse, asking the old man why he hasn't put his life down for the cause and saying that they could at least look to a person who had given his life as someone to be admired.

The man seems confused for a moment, but quickly begins a long monologue...