Discrimination against blacks was a daily practice in American until the mid–21st century. Events held to humiliate African Americans were not out of the ordinary. In Ralph Ellison's short story, "Battle Royal", the money on the electrified rug represents the idea that racial equality was farce and that whites still oppressed blacks in an unfair battle.
             The narrator in "Battle Royal" is a well-educated African American who is repressed by a glass ceiling. He has aspirations to become the next Booker T. Washington but is held back by society. After graduating, he is invited to give a speech at a smoker, an informal men-only social gathering. As he came into the area it was filled with white men with drinks and cigars. In return for coming to the event, he and fellow African Americans were lead to a "rug covered with coins of all dimensions and a few crumpled bills" (122). These items caught his eyes but what excited him were the gold pieces. Before being released to retrieve the coins, a man from the audience shouts, "These niggers look like there're about to pray!" (123). The thought of being able to stuff their pockets full of money overcame them, so they do not even realize that they are were bowing down to the white man in the process. The coins on the rug filled the African Americans with the idea that they could possibly become respectable with enough money.
             This money can not boost their social status. It is money that white men put on a to watch 'niggers' pick off the floor for their amusement. The narrator and the other blacks did not know that the rug the coins were on was electrified. If he were to touch a coin, he would be electrified. The money on the rug gave the appearance that the narrator is getting an opportunity at social equality, which could not be further from the truth. The money on the rug was put there by white men. It was not
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