Oh no. It's racial, meaning, more generally, we ape the manners of foreigners. He's fruitcake after all. I wonder what the cakewalk actually is. G.K. Chesterton mentions it. Is it the way the great Vivian Richards used to move? Probably does still move, come to that. That would hardly fit with Debussy. More like Duke Ellington.
Chesterton was good on walks. One Father Brown story turns on the difference between a gentleman's walk and a waiter's. Father Brown stumped along, as I do rather these days. Chesterton, given his extraordinary weight, must have rolled.
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