Date:  Tue, 16 Dec 1997 13:23:59 +0000
From:  Jim Rader <jrader[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]M-W.COM>
Subject: Re: sand nigger

We have only a handful of post-Gulf War cites for <sand nigger>,
though Nexis has (naturally) more data. The earliest cite I located
was from the 7/28/86 issue of <The New Republic>. Where the
reference is specified, it usually refers to an Arab (a vague enough
term in itself), though not surprisingly the people using this term
are not strong on geography: it is quoted in reference to an
Iranian-American (San Diego Union-Tribune 8/24/93), a person of
Armenian descent (Automotive News 8/8/94), and the "East Indian"
customers of a Nissan dealership (Denver Post 8-5-94). <Sand nigger>
and <camel jockey> got some publicity when Terrel Bell, a Reagan-era
secretary of education, published a book in 1987 claiming that White
House staffers routinely used these epithets.

The most interesting cite was from <USA Today> (3/21/90): Chippewa
Indians in northern Wisconsin report that white locals refer to them
as "sand niggers" and "timber niggers." Is this a recycling of the
Middle Eastern slur or something of independent lineage?

Synynoms offered, in addition to <camel jockey>, are <raghead>
(already recorded in Dialect Notes in 1921), <rughead>, and
<towelhead>.

Jim Rader