In this part of the novel the majority is represented by the powerful white men to whom the narrator is giving his high school graduation speech. The reaction of the white men to the phrase 'Social equality' suggests that they believe that the truth about social equality is that it is wrong. This truth is based on the residual idea that African-Americans are racially inferior, as well as a fear of how the white world would change in the truth about social equality was that it was right. Later on in this scene the narrator agrees with them and apologizes for the slip up demonstrating that the has accepted the truth of the majority.
