This is the only way to maintain one's self-respect and survive in a white society.
"Battle Royal" gives the reader a look at just how society feels toward black people. In the story, the narrator and another group of young black boys are humiliated and degraded simply for the entertainment of some older white men. The narrator goes to the gathering with the intention of delivering a speech. He was incredibly excited, and was hoping to impress the other whites in the community. He is driven by the desire to please the whites, and to advance his own status among them. He measures his accomplishments by what the white men think of him. He says it was a "triumph for his whole community" when he was asked to deliver that speech again, he couldn't be more proud. Of course, things didn't go exactly as he had planned. .
The white men he had hoped would treat him with respect proceeded to make a fool of him just as they did to his other black friends. One example is when the boys are presented with the white showgirl. The white men in the room force the boys to look at the girl, while others threaten them when they do. It is obvious that when this story was written, black men could never show any kind of attraction towards white women. Some of the boys cried, one of them fainted, and another tried to hide the fact that he was aroused. Even when they tried to leave, the white men, who found the situation humorous, forced them to watch. .
The night progressed and brought along more disgrace for the boys. The boxing match between the narrator and the other boys was the next event in the evening of humiliation. They were blindfolded and told to fight each other like wild animals. They continued to beat on each other while the white men's threats were all they could hear. In the end, it came down to the narrator and the bigger Tatlock as the only ones in the ring. Tatlock's ideals differed greatly from those of the narrator, and the narrator called him a "stupid clown" for it.