Calling a Spade a Spade

A very educated and cool girlfriend of mine in Miami (which is hard to come by) posted a funny, insightful note today about how sensitive certain words, slang, and phrases have become since Obama became our president. Race has always been a hot topic, but now that we have a black man in office, everyone seems to be a bit more careful with their word choice. Here's what Dianna wrote today:

I can't help but laugh when I hear public figures tap dance around certain terms that they would not hesitate to use if Obama was white. This learned gentleman was trying to explain the possibilities for negotiations with Iran on Diane Reem this morning and he actually stuttered out the following:

"...that's something they (Iran) never received with the Bush administration, and that's something they've gotten in sp....uh, great quantities, from the Obama administration."

Talk about quick thinking! The word he wanted was SPADES, the idiom for which is "in spades": To a considerable degree: They had financial trouble in spades.

The definition of the word spade itself however, causes concern:
Spade 2 (spd) n.1. Games
a. A black, leaf-shaped figure on certain playing cards.
b. A playing card with this figure.
c. also spades (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The suit of cards represented by this figure.
2. Offensive slang used as a disparaging term for a Black person.

He obviously realized very quickly that might not be the best choice...it's so silly that this kind of panic has to happen at all, but I suppose I'd rather have them err on the side of polite and respectful. Plus, it's kinda entertaining to hear them scramble to recover. :)

I agree, Dianna. A lot about this topic has been cropping up as of late; there are subtle hints all over the media. 30 Rock, a show I watch religiously, jokes about it all the time. For example, when Alec Baldwin's character was dating Salma Hayek, who was acting as a Puerto Rican nurse, he was stumbling for the "right thing" to call her, as if Puerto Rican sounded derogatory somehow. There are other instances they portray that I see a lot in real life, like non-black people not knowing what to call black people. They stutter and stumble, confused and conflicted about whether to say "African-American," or "Afro-American," as if "Black" might somehow be offensive. So long as I don't here colored, nigger, or negro coming out of a non-black person's mouth, I'm cool. But no one knows what to call each other anymore. I say, let's just call a spade a spade, haha! (spoken from a Chinegro, a Blasian, an Amerasian who can basically say whatever she wants without negative repercussion--I'm considered race-neutral...I think...wait, is there such a thing?)