Williams uses "Nobody" as the counter to the stereotype that whites had about blacks at the time. During slavery, many stereotypes were formed to justify the racist actions against blacks to keep them at the bottom of the social totem pole. Stemming from images, phrases and common beliefs, the stereotypes held power and weight, as they were the force and the background behind much of the daily encounters that whites had with blacks even after the end of slavery. These stereotypes did not even have to make sense. "For instance, an enslaved person forced under violence to work from sunrise to sunset could hardly be described as 'lazy,' yet laziness, as well as characteristics of docility, backwardness, lasciviousness, treachery, and dishonesty, historically became characteristic of African Americans." As social classes were beginning to form, and the middle class was emerging, whites felt pressured to thwart the growth of blacks, using these stereotypes in any way that could be justified. As a result, these beliefs crept their way into the entertainment industry and onto the vaudeville stage, as blackface minstrelsy was becoming increasingly popular. Scholar Alan Trachtenberg asserts that "new social roles developed for culture. Changes in social structure, the polarization of rich and poor, and the growth of a salaried middle class anxious about its own opportunity — indeed, created the necessity — for the healing properties identified within high culture." Bert Williams took note of the changing culture, and used the stereotypes to work both for and against the white people in his audience.