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 …showed first 75 words of 983 total…

…showed last 75 words of 983 total…can find his place. By using the two tropes, “mastery of form” and “deformation of mastery,” Clara Ann Thompson communicates her message on the race problem to a white audience. She sends her message through her minstrel mask, Uncle Rube, her poetic image that answers questions from the whites. At that time, it was the only way to be heard by black Americans, and mastery of this form helped create racial uplift throughout the land.