I third that (e)motion, and chafe at suggestions by some doctrinaire centrists that the Democratic party should tack to the economic right in an attempt to prove their “centrist” bona fides, and in so doing, willingly cede ground to a reactionary opposition party that’ll call them marxists/communists/soshulists ( SIC ) anyway.
Can you, or can you not, dig it?
I can dig it.
Look, she’s a complicated woman, and no one understands her but Q.
Constipated, maybe 
I could dig it, but choose not to.
I wouldn’t dig that with your shovel!
Stranger
I admire your propensity to call a spade a spade.
[Moderating]
Let’s avoid using racial slurs in jokes like this, please.
No warning issued.
[/Moderating]
Just an open apology.
I considered whether that expression had racist overtones, but erroneously decided that it probably didn’t.
Miller’s note prompted reflection. Between that and this article …
I apologize. I’ll know better next time.
Huh. When I was growing up, as far as I knew, calling a spade a spade meant you weren’t calling it a shovel. They’re different shapes and have different purposes. Paraphrased, it meant you were calling something by a specific, more accurate name rather than a generic one.
These days I have to stop and check myself as it doesn’t mean that anymore.
It’s the kind of thing that can provoke recreational outrage in fum ducks- like “niggardly.”
I actually know what a niggard it, too!
Not a useful thing to know, nowadays, but I know it.
See the article that @DavidNRockies linked to. The TLDR:
The origins of phrase have nothing to do with race, and it long predates any use of “spade” in a racial sense. But in the 20th century, “spade” became used as an offensive term for a Black person, and the phrase “to call a spade a spade” became somewhat “guilty by association.”
Which is why I now keep a mental note to not use the phrase, ever. It’s not innocuous anymore, and I do not want to hurt others.
I think the problem was that it appeared to be an (accidental?) double entendre both as a pun on shovel as a racial allusion Shaft, which makes is a bit problematic even if in general “calling a spade a spade” is not racist.
[Moderating]
Buck Godot has it right. The problem wasn’t the phrase by itself, but using it in conjunction with a bunch of references to a famous Black character. Absent that specific circumstance, the phrase would not have been noted.
[/Moderating]
Truth be told, I jumped back into the thread without having caught any of the “Shaft” posts.
Furthering the mea culpa aspect of this particular faux pas.
[On top of which, I’m using foreign phrases on an English-language MB ;-)]
OMG! They probably both order burgers at a burger joint, too! What cretins!