After today, I call a spade a spade

[Hutzpa]

IT IS OVER, HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA IS HERE. GET IT DONE!


Kaboooosh!!

[johnaries]

1. Question for my AA friends. Do you consider "calling a spade

a spade" as having racist roots? I always thought it meant "calling a shovel a shovel" (som other white friends of mine thought the same), until an AA friend of mine pointed out that "spade" used to be a derogatory racist term.

I am sure the OP thought of it in terms of a "shovel".

[FrenchieCat]

2. I personally know how to separate the two.......

[SoFlaJet]

7. Color ME confused

I thought he was talking about people here in Alcoholics Anonymous

[Alcibiades]

3. Um, no.

The phrase originates with a mistranslation by Erasmus, long before the term "spade" became a racist epithet. Read more at link.

http://verbmall.blogspot.com/2006/05/mistakenly-racist-terms.html

[Ter]

8. How about tit-for-tat?

Every time I hear it, I think boobies.

[rug]

13. When I see inked cleavage I think tat-for-tit.

[JoePhilly]

14. I've always liked "walking abreast" ...

When I was a kid I thought that phrase meant something else entirely.

[Yavin4]

17. To Quote Benny Hill

"Tat! Tat! Tat!"

[Hutzpa]

4. Pass over

my apologies to your friends all round and this day shall be known as
calling a diamond a diamond.

Where I'm from they shovel diamonds instead of snow...}(

[CakeGrrl]

5. No. I know when a saying is used and when a slur is intended. n/t

[Hekate]

6. As opposed to referring to it as a personal digging implement? One is stuffy, the other's colloquial

... British; neither is racist.

The "other" meaning has its origins in a suit of playing cards, as in "The Ace of..."

Hekate

[Ghost Dog]

12. In UK usually refers to people from Yorkshire:

who have a reputation for clear-sightedness, warts and all, and say what they think, with few circumlocutions. eg. "Where there's muck there's brass".

Ie. Straight-talking. Honest.

Or, as we say in Spain: "sin pelos en la lengua" ;)

[Hekate]

18. Didn't know about Yorkshire, but did figure it had to do with straight talk. TY for the info

:hi:

[Oregone]

9. Just because someone drinks, it doesn't mean they are experts in racial issues

[goclark]

10. Not a problem for me ~ I'm AAmerican

Spade is a pretty old term.

I would say not a problem unless someone meant it to be hurtful.

[win_in_06]

16. Let's put it this way...

...if Harry Reid had said that, he'd have some 'splainin' to do.

[Imagevision]

11. Did Obama make a deal with the Ins. companies?

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

15. I always thought it referred to the spade on a playing card

(I'm not AA)