The battle royale sequence portrays black men fighting each other for the entertainment of whites. Does Ellison portray similar combats between blacks and whites? to what end?

There is the ethno-cultural battle that makes up the fabric of the American South. The civil-war was the beginning, but it rages on in the book and even today. Some whites, thankfully the minority, want to go back to the days of segregation. We see this struggle within the text and in recent historical events.