The Greeks coined the root phrase "to call a fig a fig." By 1542, the phrase had become "to call a spade a spade." How did a centuries-old phrase become racist?
A "spade" was just that: a small gardening instrument. Shortly after, it was one of the suits of a deck of cards. It was all good until the Harlem Renaissance.
That association stuck after a mention in a novel titled "Home to Harlem" written in 1928. After that, if you were dark-skinned, you were "black as the ace of spades." The Great Migration irritated white folks, and being called a spade became one more derogatory way to refer to Black people.
In the 1950s, a British author used the term to fetishize Black culture. Gross? Yes. Unexpected? No. Finally the late 1960s and 1970s saw us attempting to reclaim the word.
The evolution of "to call a spade a spade" reminds us of the importance of being mindful of our words and their impact, especially in a society that doesn’t see our liberation as crucial. Acknowledging this history can ensure we don't continue to perpetuate harmful stereotypes.