"call a spade a spade" furor

[Baker, John]

        I would argue the opposite:  "Call a spade a spade" has at times
been used in fact to refer to African-Americans (in spite of its etymology),
while "niggardly" is never or almost never used to refer to
African-Americans.  And the connotations seem to fit better too:  "Call a
spade a spade and not an African-American" has a clear (and offensive)
meaning that I won't bother to spell out.  But the African-American
stereotype does not include niggardliness.

John Baker


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ittaob at AOL.COM [SMTP:Ittaob at AOL.COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2001 11:58 PM
> To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Re: "call a spade a spade" furor
>
> This would be laughable if it weren't so sad. It strikes me that the
> sensitivity to "spade" is less understandable than that to "niggardly",
> since
> I suspect that most younger people, at least, don't connect the word
> "spade"
> with African-Americans. I perceive it as "old slang," something out of the
> rat pack days, half a century ago. Am I right?
>
> Steve Boatti