Richard and Harrison, however, such a fight would be degrading. However, Harrison needs the money that the white men offer him for the fight. For Harrison, it is not so much an ideology that influences his choice, but a need, that cash is necessary to survive. For Richard, though, a deeper influence may be pressing him to fight. All through Chapter 12, Richard opposes the idea of a fight. Even at first, when the white men try to trick him into thinking that Harrison wants to hurt him, he is wary and intelligent enough to not fall for the ploy. Later, when Harrison presses him to fight, Richard says, I dont want to fight for white men. Im no dog or rooster. However, almost immediately thereafter, Richard agrees to the fight. What caused this sudden change of mind? Call them ideologies, perhaps, but there is a combination of factors that lead Richard to fight. First of all, Richard feels a loyalty to Harrison as a co-worker and fellow black boy, evidenced in Richards narration: Harrison and I knew each other casually, but there had never been the slightest trouble between us and Harrison was black and so was I; I would ignore the warning of the white man and talk face to face with a boy of my own color. Secondly, the ideas that the employers plant in the minds of Richard and Harrison are seeds of doubt that both men can stifle for a while, but eventually they grow and flower. Richard tells us, We were toying with the idea of death for no reason that stemmed from our own lives, but because the men who ruled us had thrust the idea into our minds. Perhaps, in these words, the fear of unemployment or worse, death at the hands of the white men, also caused Richard to fight. By doing this, Richard feels he has done something unclean for which I [he] could not properly atone. In fighting for the white men, Richard has helped maintain the status quo of the white-superior society.This fight certainly maintains the status quo in S...
