To call a misunderstanding a misunderstanding

In Friday’s tuition editorial (Next idea, please: Tuition hike shows the administration’s lack of ingenuity or willingness to take personal cuts), the editorial board used the phrase “It’s time to call a spade to spade.” We were later informed that “spade” can be a derogatory term for blacks.

According to Wikipedia.org, the term “spade” was used mostly in the 1970s to connote a black person. The Post had no intention of using it in this sense. Associate Editor Justin Thompson wrote the editorial using a common figure of speech, completely unaware of the racist connotation.

Although we haven’t received any official letters about the incident, I received an e-mail and also heard that students and professors have been talking about it in class.

It’s impossible for Post employees to know all of the wrong connotations of phrases, but it is embarrassing when we mess up nonetheless. If someone thought we used the phrase “spade” purposely, it would have looked appalling, particularly because it came right after we referred to our first black president, an accomplishment for which we congratulate Ohio University. It’s clear that The Post did not mean to imply any type of racial reference; we were simply using a figure of speech that is easily misconstrued. As with many other things, we will try to be more careful in the future.

The term “to call a spade a spade” reminded me of the expression “rule of thumb,” which, while common in all language, actually is a sexist expression. “Rule of thumb,” according to some scholars, was derived from a rule that men can beat their wives with a stick no larger than a thumb.

It is the responsibility of the editor to be aware of these types of expressions, and yet, mistakes are made with idioms and word choices all the time. This quarter, we have had a few problems with this in The Post (see my previous post on being politically correct).

Let’s face it: Our newsroom is mostly white kids. We lack the cultural diversity to always see the various connotations. This lack of diversity is something we hope to change on the inside of The Post, in the hopes that it will better improve our outer presentation.