The other day, while facilitating a workshop, I used the metaphor "to call a spade a spade" in the context of a software practice. The subject under discussion was technical and my use of the phrase was in no way directed towards any human being or groups of human beings: I was addressing an inanimate technological practice. I don't think the phrase distracted me (or my audience) from the point I was trying to make, because the discussion continued on without being derailed.
In the ensuing break, my co-facilitator told me that the phrase had its origins in a racial slur against African Americans. I was taken aback since I had no idea that was the case. I thanked him for bringing this sorry history to my knowledge and privately resolved to not use the phrase in future.
However, something didn't sit well with me: I remembered reading the phrase in old texts, texts of English (as opposed to American) origin. I had some vague recollections from grade school about the phrase being a metaphorical translation from ancient languages. I know reading Wikipedia doesn't constitute research, however it's entry [1] agreed with my recollections: the phrase acquired negative connotations much later than it was coined. It had been used for generations without any racial overtones, until an unfortunate homonymic alliance with a racial epithet made it unpalatable.
I have run across other phrases that have been assigned a racial etymology retroactively: "chink in one's armor" comes to mind. As I understand, there was an incident recently where a journalist was fired because of his injudicious use of that phrase [2] in an online article.
As someone who has witnessed racist epithets first-hand (both applied to myself and to others within my earshot), I have an above-adequate aversion to such phrases. I am very happy when people object to the use of inherently and irrevocably derogatory words and phrases, even when the speaker might have done so in ignorance. I am equally happy when terms that are defamatory in their origin -- like "Paki", which applies to me -- is reclaimed by those towards whom it was directed as a form of insouciant and irrepressible pride.
However, I am troubled when a term that had no racial or derogatory overtones in its genesis, a term that has been used for decades or even centuries in a neutral way, suddenly acquires an anachronistic "history" of being a racially motivated term. It is history-rewriting of a rather egregious form. It is one thing for a word to evolve and acquire new meanings -- a living language should always exhibit this trait as a testament to the inquisitiveness and tolerance of its adherents -- however the reattribution of a word's or phrase's origins is a foul practice, on par with cheating and swindling.
I'll probably shy away from using the phrase my colleague asked me to avoid. However, I have enough spunk to use it one last time: rewriting a word's etymological history is just plain lying; to call it anything else is to avoid calling a spade a spade.
