	White society plays another significant role as antagonists.  Though as often in the book as not, blacks are antagonistic towards each other, the source of their antagonism is the white's attitude.  Again at the beginning of the narrative, at the battle royal, the antagonism
of the white men causes schoolmate to turn on schoolmate.  Whie the white yell filthy names and make cruel threats, the boys in their terror strike out at each other.  It is violence and degradation the boys are forced to for the sake of the white men's hatred and antagonism.  As another example, the narrator's dislike of Trueblood stems from the poor opinion whites apparenly justified whites' disgust.  It is in trying to wipe away reason for that attitude thatly held towards black people in general.  The Narrator felt that men like Trueblood ont blacks became antagonistic against one another.  On page 274, whites are playing the role of evictors.  though the particular men in this scene do not by any means relish their work of forcing old people from their home, the gathering crowd sees their actions as malicious.  Whether what they feel is antagonism or not, the mob feels that it is and is therefore influenced to act on that assumption.  Cops, while not always shown as an antagonistic force in the novel, certainly are at some points.  In the killing of Clifton on page 436, one officer manages to inflame the entire Harlem area against all law enforcement, setting in motion violence and suffering beyond what three bullets can cause.  On page 565 they again play the role as during the race riot, their words push the narrator over the edge.  In something of an insane parley, the officers cover a manhole which the Narrator has fallen down, trying to escape them.  Their questioning of him cast him into darkness.
	One more important role whites played in influencing the narrator is that of a disillusioning force.  Throughout the novel, the narrator repeatedly discovers that things he believed in, hopes he cherished, were nothing.  One of the most significant instances of disillusionment is brought on by Emerson Jr.  In the beginning of the novel, one discovers that it is the narrator's dream to return to his college and take Dr. Bledsoe's place after he has proven his responsibility in New York.  His dreams still rest on the foundation of the college when he enters the office of Mr. Emerson with his letter of reccomendation.  Emerson, who seems to struggle with the letter's content, soon offers it to be read by the narrator.  On discovering that the letter is denouncing him, and that he will never be able to return to the college, the narrator receives his first major crushing blow.  Emerson, though hating to be the bearer of bad news, IS the bearer of bad news, a disillusioning force: "Because to help you, I must disillusion you..." as he says.  A second member of the white race to aid in the narrator's painful realizations is Brother Hambro.  Page 503  contains an understanding of what the brotherhood intends to do about the Harlem district.  "It is inevitable that some must make greater sacrifices than others" to which the narrator responds, "that 'some' being my people".  He comes to realize that his idea of progress does not fit in with the greater scheme of brotherhood, that their ideas are based on "Rinehartism-cynicism."
