Here, Rufus calls out Dana for her inability to be treated purely as a black woman. He complains that she is "too white" to be working as a slave. This moment highlights the fact that Dana does not mesh seamlessly into the social hierarchy of the Antebellum era, presenting herself as the model white man–educated, well-spoken, and well-mannered–rather than the sterotypical Antebellum black woman–uneducated, illiterate, and powerless. However, because of Dana's higher position of power than the sterotypical Antebellum black woman, she is also more susceptible to leveraging her position of power to make threats of violence.