Racism education: The origin of the phrase "Talent in Spades"

[capri0mni]

Okay, this is an incident that happened about 17 years ago, and it floats to the top of my consciousness every so often.

Preface: Now, at the university where I went for my Masters, they had a student escort program for people who didn't walk alone back to their dorms after dark, where you'd call into the volunteer center, and tell them where you were, and that you'd like an escort to come and walk with you to X place on campus. And a volunteer in an orange safety vest, carrying a walkie-talkie would show up and walk with you. I used it all the time, because a) not only am I a woman, and walking alone after dark is more dangerous for us, but b) I use a wheelchair, and am thus less visible to highway drivers (being below their line of sight). And it gave me someone to talk to on the way back from class.

---

Anyway, one night two African-American young men came to escort me one evening, and we got to talking... And I mentioned someone I admired having X talent "In spades," and they cut me off and told me please not to use that phrase because it's racist. I blushed to my ears, and said "Oh! Sorry! I didn't know..." and the conversation ground to a halt. I was too embarrassed and flustered, just then, to ask why it was racist. And I feared that if I did, it would come across as my defending my racism, which I didn't want to do.

But I've always been curious about that phrase ever since (and I never did meet up with those guys again, to ask them in person, with a little distance from the actual exchange).

And currently, my Google-fu is failing me. I put the keywords [Phrase, origins, "talent in spades"] in the search box, and the closest hit I got was a closed discussion thread where people were accusing someone of being racist because he used the phrase. So now, I know that it has a wide reputation for being racist. But I'm not exactly sure why.

Language geeks on my f'list: a little help? Do you know where this phrase comes from? And/Or is there another set of keywords I could try?

In the meantime, I'll try to conscious of when I want to use the phrase, and try to come up with something different.

Comments

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Closest I've got is this:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-spa1.htm

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Ah ha…
http://www.takeourword.com/TOW193/page2.html

[timjr.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's not the 'Talent in...' part where the racism comes in. It's the Spade part, which has been a derogatory term for black since the 20's, apparently.

[scarfman]

I don't know where it comes from, but spade as slang for negro is a running gag in George Segal's 70s comedy sequel to The Maltese Falcon.

At Take Our Word.com I found this:

From R.J. Kuzma:

Other than a dictionary reference to "colloquial, 1920's", [there is] no satisfying answer to the source of the phrase in spades, although many seem to think this is now not politically correct due to the derogatory associations with spade.

The ace of spades.Yes, surprisingly, spade is indeed a contemptuous term for a black person. However, did you know that it was first used by African Americans (in the U.S.) to refer to exceptionally dark-skinned people among them? Well, while that usage arose because the card suit called spades is black, the term in spades is not related to that usage. Instead, it arose from the game of bridge, in which the suit of spades is the highest ranking suit in the game. In spades dates in the written record from 1929 in the U.S.

Spade used to refer to the card suit dates in writing from 1598. It derives from Italian spade "sword". It is simply a coincidence that the spade symbol in British and U.S. playing cards (which came ultimately from France) resembles a spade or shovel.

So it's arguable that, since the phrase "in spades", being derived from bridge rather than from the slang, your escorts were the ones out of line rather than you. Whether it would have been sensitive, or usseful, to argue with them might be another question.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

In other words, while "spade" may be an antiquated slur, "in spades" is no more racist than "niggardly"?

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

That's my reading, yeah.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

I've certainly heard "spade" used in that sense before, but my understanding is that "talent in spades" refers to an overabundance of talent, which I can't connect to anything race-related--in fact, I'd think that a racist term would be less likely to acknowledge any talent at all in that population, much less an overabundance. I'm quite curious about the whole thing, now.

[timjr.livejournal.com]

Or perhaps, as opposed to being read as "You have talent in abundance" the phrase could be read as "Wow, you have talent... for a black person."

At least, that's the possibility I'm getting out of it.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That's what I was wondering; so it comes from the arcane world of Bridge-playing. I definitely need to find a replacement then; if the phrase has any connection to the playing card, I can see how it has a racist connection, since "Black as a spade" also refers to the playing card (and also objectifies the POC as a thing for amusement).

I always thought the phrase went back to the garden tool: This person has so much talent, you could scoop it up with a small hand shovel. And at that moment, I couldn't figure out why gardening tools were racist.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I disagree. It's from the _rules_ of bridge, not from simply the color of the playing card suit.

But, as the microscopic amount of RaceFail09 I read taught, my opinion doesn't matter in matters of race. :/

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

See my reply to jbsegal, above; he linked to just that same article.

I figure that if "Spade, the card suit" is racist, than anything connecting "Spade, the card suit" (even in the more specific context of a particular game) should be avoided when talking about people, especially when there are other ways of expressing the same idea.

Especially since I was not saying what I thought I was saying, at all. I'd thought I was saying: her talent is so deep everywhere she goes, you could scoop it up with a small gardening shovel -- or "she has talent to spare!" But not that she "unranks" everyone.

I think, from now on, I will make an advertising icon reference, and say: "Too scoops of talent!" instead...

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Well, I figure that if I'm going to be talking to other people, I at should at least take their sensitivities into account.

This means: a) I accept the fact if they tell me that something I've said has hurt them, and apologize.

b) I not demand that they know the origin of every word they use or object to. After all, I didn't know the origin of the word.

and, finally: c) expect that misunderstandings will happen when people communicate, as part of human nature, and do what I can to minimize that.

I do this as a personal choice -- my own way to navigate the hermeneutical highways and byways of life.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

On a lingustic level, I'm not sure I agree. The connection between "spade" meaning "offensive term for black people" and "in spades" meaning "large amounts" is fairly weak. One is to do with the appearance of the suit, and the other comes from a specific game where that suit happens to be significant. (IOW, if the rules for bridge were different we'd be saying people have talent "in hearts", and the question wouldn't even come up.)

However, on a practical level, while I'm happy to argue etymologies until the cows come home, I reckon the evidence of a phrase being offensive is whether people are offended by it, not whether I think they're "right" to be (because it's not me it's happening to). In this case, it seems they are, so you're probably right to avoid it.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

It's the difference between denotations and connotations. "Call a spade a spade" refers to the implement whereas "spade" as a racial slur derives from the suit of cards but the first phrase has been used as a racial slur in my culture sooo many times (including several famous public occasions) that it has racist connotations despite its denotations. Your experience might have been contextual for your conversational partners in connotational ways of which you and I aren't currently aware.

There was a fascinating conversation about use of the word "niggardly" on a recent RaceFail post but one side deleted all their comments. :-(

[alto2.livejournal.com]

That doesn't fit the context, though, since it's an expression of real admiration. In any case, after I replied to your comment earlier, I saw that someone upthread posted a link saying that it comes from Bridge, where spades are worth the most (or ranked highest, or some such--guess you can tell the only bridges I know are the ones that cross water!).

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

That certainly seems a possibility.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

Oh, heck, now you mention it, I think back to Withnail & I, and McGann's character Marwood asking Danny near the end of the film, "Who's that huge spade in the bath?"

I had NO IDEA what the connotation was. Wow, do I feel educated.

[judiang.livejournal.com]

And I had to keep telling myself "okaaay, it's supposed to be 1969."

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

I had never heard it before then. Or really since, and certainly not while I was living back home, which would GREATLY explain my unfortunate ignorance. I suspect this is an entrenched American usage that must have bled over?

[drox.livejournal.com]

It's not just talent that one can have "in spades"; Any trait (good, bad, or whatever) that can be had in abundance, might be said to be "in spades". One can have attitude in spades too. Or rage, or selfishness, or...

Because in the game of bridge, a (f'rinstance) five of spades would outrank a five in another suit. When I say someone has trait n in spades, I acknowledge that other people have the trait too, but this person has it more, or better, or more pronounced, than others. It's an intensifier. But since "spade" is (was?) also a derogatory term for a black person, saying someone has a trait "in spades" could be seen as derogatory, however indirectly.

It may indeed be no more or less racist than "niggardly", but am I going to use that word? Probably not. Because I don't want to use insulting or derogatory language even (or especially) if the insult is indirect or "only a matter of perception".

When I say something derogatory, I want there to be NO DOUBT that it's derogatory. :-)

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

I always understood it as being 'by the shovelful'

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That's what I thought I'd been saying with the phrase, all these years. And that's why I liked to use it -- it created a nice, tactile, metaphor in my head.

But I know nothing of Bridge, and I have know real desire to learn the game, and so, now, the phrase has a vague, abstract meaning that I can't quite "get." That, in itself, is a reason for me to stop using it.

The fact that it is widely perceived as racist is the tipping point for me to put it into the "discard pile" forever.