Invisible Man

As I read Invisible Man I really enjoyed it but after getting into the story I started to build up so much anger. This unidentified narrator delivers a speech in for his school graduation, he is such a well spoken student that he is invited to speak at a function where some of the most important people from the city will be. He speaks about how so many of the members of the white community liked him because he was the perfect example of "desirable conduct." Once arriving at the hotel, they offered him to be a part of the "Battle Royal" which from their I knew it could not be a good thing. It's when they take black men and allow them to fight each other (At first I believed it to be them just standing and the spectators would come and beat them but I found clarification). The description of that scene along with the men fighting each other and the spectators just watching and fueling fight upset me more than anything. Just to know that people treated them this way infuriated me for some reason (yet i don't know whether or not this scene happened in real southern towns). Also, the fact that they made then gather fake coins with an electric current underneath just seemed cruel. Even though slavery had technically ended, there was a way to still keep it alive in the south. Yet his whole purpose for going was to deliver his speech and he was some what lured into it and fought/humiliated himself before showing his intellectual abilities (which was one his mind during the entire fight). Finally when he did, his words were completely ignored. Yet at the end of the scene, they award him with a briefcase and a scholarship. My question is why? Why abuse this guy and allow him to be humiliated in front of these men who find this fight as a pure IGNORANT entertainment? Then when he is finish, the spectators ignore his speech and award him with a briefcase/scholarship? Again I ask why?