Enslaved Black people were forced to dance or perform for their masters under the threat of a whipping, and the caste system “took comfort in black caricature” as the dominant caste created a stereotype of Black people as “court jester[s].” The first African American to win an Academy Award, Hattie McDaniel, won for her portrayal of “Mammy” in
Gone with the Wind, in which her character confirmed many of these stereotypes for white audiences. Yet this kind of trope or character was an invention of “caste imagination.” In Nazi Germany, too, SS officers in charge of death camps frequently forced Jewish prisoners to dance and perform for them.