"call a spade a spade"

[Douglas Wilson]

     Or, is this phrase still used in European English in its
original sense, with no racial meaning?   
 I guarantee it's still used in US English with no racial meaning
too. I just heard it yesterday in a serious talk (in the US, by
somebody who seemed to be a US-an) about a topic which could not have
any connection with 'race' or the politics thereof. I doubt I would
have noticed it or remembered it if I hadn't seen this thread on the
list. Certainly nobody in the audience giggled or anything like that.
I don't think I use this phrase myself but it seems natural and
ordinary to me.
 -- Doug Wilson

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