Cakewalk
Cakewalk is a word very commonly used to describe a task that is extremely easy to perform. However, this word has a dark and completely antithetical connotation.
The ‘cakewalk’ was the name of a pre-Civil War dance originally performed by slave-people on the plantations. The dance was often adjudicated by the owners who would be mocking the subaltern communities as they performed the task in chains.
The winner of the contest was given a cake and hence the name.
Strange enough, in certain instances, the dance was also performed during the auctions of the slave-people where it was used to indicate their ‘value’ to the bidders.
The word alludes to some of the darkest times for the African-American communities and calling their ordeal ‘easy’ is extremely insensitive.
Through macabre transmutations, the word has survived in our dictionaries and it is high time that we eliminate it altogether.
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