Re: bias indicator

JAB <here@is.invalid> writes:

Is It Racist To 'Call A Spade A Spade'?
 
What happens when a perfectly innocuous phrase takes on a more
sinister meaning over time?
 
Case in point, the expression "to call a spade a spade." For almost
half a millennium, the phrase has served as a demand to "tell it like
it is." It is only in the past century that the phrase began to
acquire a negative, racial overtone.
[snip]
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/19/224183763/is-it-racist-to-call-a-spade-a-spade

Interesting.  I recall hearing "spade" used to refer to a person of
visibly of African heritage in the 60s and it was not "opprobious".
The professional people I knew typiclly had no occasion to mention
that someone was black.  Others had such occasions and used "spade" in
that sense deviod AFATCT if any opprobrium.

--
Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada