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"Call a spade a spade" is a figurative expression.It refers to calling something "as it is" [1] —that is, by its right or proper name, without "beating about the bush", but rather speaking truthfully, frankly, and directly about a topic, even to the point of bluntness or rudeness, and even if the subject is considered coarse, impolite, or unpleasant.
To call a spade a spade is to describe something clearly and directly. Rather than using oblique and obfuscating language , just "tell it like it is". While editors who consistently engage in disruptive editing are disruptive editors, and editors who consistently vandalize are vandals, it is still required that editors be civil to one another.
From the above: "The phrase predates the use of the word "spade" as an ethnic slur against African-Americans, which was not recorded until 1928; however, in contemporary U.S. society, the idiom is often avoided due to potential confusion with the slur.[1]" Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, AKA TheArchaeologist Say Herro 14:44, 14 March 2011 ...
The word thug, which is often used synonymously with the words "gangster" or "criminal," is sometimes used to refer to black Americans unfairly. According to the Root, peanuts were "introduced to ...
Murphy said he thought Spade’s barb was “a cheap shot” and “racist.” “This is ‘Saturday Night Live.’ I’m the biggest thing that ever came off that show,” he said.
The expression to call a spade a spade is thousands of years old and etymologically has nothing whatsoever to do with any racial sentiment. The exact origin is uncertain; the ancint Greek playwright Menander, in a fragment, said "I call a fig a fig, a spade a spade," but Lucian attributes the phrase to Aristophanes.
The insult is commonly used to attack people in minoritised communities but debate persists as to whether it is racist Is the term ‘coconut’ controversial, racist – or both? Skip to main content
To "call a spade a spade" is more accurately defined in a more general way than we are using it here, that is to speak plainly or bluntly, but is not necessarily pejorative and does not refer to addressing an individual except in the most literal translation of the phrase.