"call a spade a spade" furor

[ANNE V. GILBERT]

Steve:


> 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?

I haven't heard "spade", used to mean a black person for years.  The last
time I remember hearing it, and even then it was kind of uncommon, was In
Texas in the early 1970's.
Anne G