Uncle Rube on the Race Problem
Clara Ann Thompson's poem, Uncle Rube on the Race Problem, uses examples of what Houston Baker calls "mastery of form" and "deformation of mastery" as a rhetorical strategy to commission the reader to see Rube's strong racial standpoint and beliefs. The poem starts "in medias res," right after Uncle Rube is asked how he would solve the race problem. The dialect poem then follows with a lengthy argument on racial questions asked by a group of whites to Rube, the first person narrator. Thompson uses Rube to manipulate the stereotypes whites had of blacks, and as a way to counter the oppression of her race via the minstrel mask or trope. These strategies are most prominently illustrated in Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery and W.E.B. Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk.Webster's dictionary defines the word rube as an "unsophisticated country person, and not very intellectual" (Guralnik 648). Thompson lets the reader know the character of Uncle Rube by his name and his diction. In the first two stanzas, the reader is told about slave times where "de white man wus de lo'd," (Thompson 322) and the abuse the slaves beheld by their masters. A couple lines later, Uncle Rube says the way to solve the Negro problem is "to let the bla
Rube says, "Now you're talkin' like a fool" (325). Uncle Rube thinks that amalgamation is what is frightening the whites from giving them their rights. Thompson recognizes there are two sides of the race problem, the white side and the black side. By using the trope "deformation of mastery," Thompson aggressively answers questions that the white man (or race) asks. Again, Rube says that they do not need help, that blacks just need to be left alone. He says the blacks will stick by their race, and stick together, until they get their place. He then says the whites answered the race problem after the Civil War, but their lack of reason is holding them back from finding an answer to the current situation. By using Uncle Rube in this conversation with the silent white speakers, Thompson's minstrel mask is one of unseen intelligence to the naked white eye. She also makes a point that not all whites are racists, there are exceptions, although few. She encodes it as a warning to blacks to watch themselves and be cautious of whites, and as a criticism of the actions of whites at that time. Thompson uses this strategy to address many racial issues and questions of the time. She is literally "speaking back" to her white audience through the character of Uncle Rube. Thompson then comments on the stereotypes of blacks: "his meanness, the many things he lack, and not progressing [even though the whites are trying to hold them back]" (324).
Common topics in this essay:
Uncle Rube,
Rube Don't,
Ann Thompson,
Booker Washington's,
Houston Baker,
Pluribus Unum,
Rube Thompson,
Civil War,
Thompson Rube,
Folk Webster's,
uncle rube,
minstrel mask,
mastery form,
clara ann,
rube solve,
answers questions,
deformation mastery,
uncle rube solve,
race white,
solve race,
character uncle,
form deformation mastery,
rube solve race,
clara ann thompson,
mastery form deformation,
|
Acceptance Essays
