> by someone else using the phrase "just call a spade a spade" The phrase is referring to the tool. It is not a reference to the derogatory slang term at all.

> by someone else using the phrase "just call a spade a spade" The phrase is referring to the tool. It is not a reference to the derogatory slang term at all. It dates back to Plutarch's Apophthegmata Laconica, and the earliest version of it that appeared in English was in 1542. All of that was centuries before "spade" also became used as derogatory slang. The phrase is no more racist than "like white on rice".