Wikipedia talk:Call a spade a spade

Dont call people spades.
Spade is often used as a racially discriminative term, based on the colour, both of the card and the sandcastle making device.

Also the picture on the project page appears to be a shovel. Just so you know. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.92.35.134 (talk) 14:28, 8 December 2008 (UTC)


 * To call a spade a spade 68.179.108.25 (talk) 18:07, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

From the above: "The phrase predates the use of the word "spade" as an ethnic slur against African-Americans, which was not recorded until 1928; however, in contemporary U.S. society, the idiom is often avoided due to potential confusion with the slur.[1]" Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, AKA TheArchaeologist Say Herro 14:44, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Duck test irony
wasn't the duck test first used to justify a cia sponsored coup against an elected guatemalan government, by labeling it as communist, when it wasn't, it was just a bit leftist?--Mongreilf (talk) 14:09, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I wrote the exact same exact thing somewhere else. Your correct Mongrelif. Like the saying "yelling fire in a burning building" the duck test has a violent, disturbing, and shameful history. travb (talk) 11:05, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
 * As I wrote on another page:
 * Everytime I see WP:DUCK quoted I strongly cringe, not only because of the violent history of the term (Duck test was used by the United States ambassador to Guatemala right before the CIA violently overthrew the democractically elected government, installing a military ditactorship and plunging the country into chaos and long-lasting political turbulence), but since there is no hard evidence, a lot of innocent people are surely wrongly accused. Ikip (talk) 11:19, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
 * The section reminded me of a cartoon--I believe it was in Penthouse. A duck is sitting in front of a psychiatrist's desk. He ponders, "It walks like a duck. It talks like a duck. But is it a duck?  :-D   68.179.108.25 (talk) 18:03, 4 September 2009 (UTC)


 * It also makes me cringe also. Whenever WP:DUCK is used as a basis then I read - an editor/admin who likely makes continous errors based on unconvincing evidence in a subjective way. I'm surprised that no corresponding WP:DUCKMYTH article exists. SunCreator (talk) 02:06, 25 February 2010 (UTC)


 * That is because the article is too ambiguous. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, AKA TheArchaeologist Say Herro 14:45, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

WP:DUCK / WP:Duck
Is it necessary to show the second shortcut in the shortcut box? WP:Duck is nice to have and I tend to type "wp:____" in lowercases anyways (shaves a few milliseconds off typing), but it looks out of place in that shortcut box. Maybe I'm being picky? :D –  Ker αun oςc op ia◁ galaxies  07:21, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Applicable to article writing or only behind-the-scenes discussions?
Does WP:SPADE apply to article writing, or only to interpersonal relations on discussion pages and notice boards? Does it take precedence over WP:NPOV? What about Don't call a spade a spade and Don't call the kettle black? Elizium23 (talk) 00:03, 16 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Here is a much belated reply (mostly for others wondering the same thing/as a jumping off point for discussion of potential edits) — It does not take precedence over WP:NPOV, as that's a policy whereas this is an essay. It has some precedence over the other two, since it's categorized as "high impact", whereas the other two are "mid impact".
 * As written/categorized, it appears to refer only to interpersonal relations. However, I'd guess it's fairly often misused to refer to content, and I'd like to have some essay to point to for article content matters. Should we:
 * Add to this page content for calling a spade a spade in articles?
 * Create a new essay for article content and use a hatnote to disambiguate here?
 * Move this page to another name and rewrite WP:SPADE to be about article content?
 * - Sdkb (talk) 00:15, 2 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I added a section discussing this topic. Carpimaps talk to me! 10:21, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

Good faith?
Isn't this article almost diametrically opposed to assuming good faith? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.142.178.24 (talk) 18:23, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

Racist?
pointed out elsewhere that "calling a spade a spade" has taken on a racist connotation. I was unaware of this. Should we, as suggested in the NPR article, retire the term and rename this essay? – Muboshgu (talk) 01:59, 18 June 2023 (UTC)


 * I would just add the comments in NPR and other sources to the article. It actually says that one should be cautious when using the term. Personally, I would not use it. I brought it up in the other article to make the point that common vocabulary can acquire negative connotations, even if that is not what the speaker meant. TFD (talk) 02:07, 18 June 2023 (UTC)