Fair enough.  I seriously thought that Irvine22 was simply being obtuse when he brought that up, as he has a storied history of being obtuse.  If I had thought it was an actual racial epithet then I would never have used it.  Chalk this one up to experience, and to different culturesI have never heard of that saying or anything like it as being racially insensitive.  As an aside, I would like to point out that whatever part of the world you're from, your particular local sayings should not form the basis of wikipedia policy.  I can say with a great deal of certainty that the phrase "To call a spade a spade" has no racial overtones whatsoever in the vast majority of the english speaking world.  I have heard many rude , offensive, and inventive words for black people, and "spade" has never been one of them.  Also, whether you think my joke was funny or not, I should not be banned for making it.  Regardless, I have removed the phrase in question.  I'll take this incident into consideration when editting in the future.  I'd appreciate an unblock now.