Shit, I had just the faintest notion of a fringe use that was some weird racist thing but that's fucking baroque:

The British author Colin MacInnes, who was white, frequently used the term in novels like City of Spades (1957) and Absolute Beginners (1959) about the multiracial, multicultural London of the 1950s and '60s. MacInnes has been criticized for his exotification and sexualization of black culture in his books. MacInnes also coined the cringeworthy word "spadelet" to refer to black infants.

It's such a useful phrase though! Fucking hell . . .