s. Richard described them as,"merely people like other people." (27) At childhood, Richard found thetruthall peoples seemed somewhat equal. Whites were humbled by therevelation that they were just normal, not the heroes of their dreams.Whites domination over blacks was apparent in Richard's life as hedescribed the horrendous beating of a black woman who did not pay herbills, and his later match with a car of white boys. The white boysdemonstrated their superiority, even telling Richard in a cocky manner,"You're a lucky bastard, 'cause if you'd said that to some other whiteman, you might've been a dead nigger now." (214) Their personal valuedropped when they found that they weren't necessarily the absolute best ateverything, since black Richard could succeed also, and so they wanted toregain their prestige or respect for themselves that they had. Their mostreadily available grounds for success was their racial domination overothers. Therefore, they must have actively participated in racism as aneed to show that they are better than others. This quality projects intothe boys' throwing the bottle at Richard. The shear fact that others mightrival whites' power depressed them. Richard's principal, may be consideredblack or white, but it makes little difference as he was obviously moldedby white values. The principal goes as far as to threaten not to allowRichard to graduate if he does not conform to the principal's views,forcing upon Richard this aggrandizement. Even though the knowledgeremained concealed, the whites were confronted with the truth that theywere just humansand the whole stature that they have built around theirbeings. Because others matched up to whites, it forced them to no longertotally ignore the unconscious acknowledgment of equality. Thus raciststried to defeat others as Richard's principal did to fulfill theexpectations of excellence, and to dismiss the hurting truth of theirmediocrity. Each assemblage tried targeting o...
