"call a spade a spade" furor

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:24 AM -0800 11/14/01, Kim & Rima McKinzey wrote:
>>Seems there's another political furor going on, this time about
>>the supposed racist use of the expression "call a spade a spade".
>
>Why does this bring to mind the universal change which brought about
>African American is the Color of my True Love's Hair.
>
>Rima

Or the item recounted by Deborah Cameron (on p. 116 of the "Civility
and its discontents" chapter of her Verbal Hygiene):

"In the early 1990's, a humorous item in the British Guardian
newspaper reported that the Fresno Bee, a California newspaper, had
been forced to run a curious correction.  Inadvertently, the Bee had
referred to 'a plan for putting Massachusetts back in the
African-American.' "

I wonder if the Fresno Bee is a cousin of the Sacramento Bee that
just informed us about the "spade" flap.

larry