Spooks is a pretty knowing term to use. Not exactly a word the average person throws around. And yes, they likely knew long before now. Right after the midterms? Interesting timing. Seems the spooks are doing what spooks do.
Not what you are doing, and I understand that's why they renamed the show but they shouldn't have. While it can be used as a racial slur it doesn't generally have that connotation. I think if you directly asked most people they would either not know about the slur or say something like "I think its a racist term for some group or something." I had to look it up myself to be sure. We can choose to let that usage of the term die.