Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 11:46:35 -0600

From: "Donald M. Lance" engdl[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SHOWME.MISSOURI.EDU

Subject: Re: Sand Nigger



Sorry about the title, but that's what this posting's about.

...

Anne H. Soukhanov's new SPEAKING FREELY implies that the term originated

during the Gulf War. A Usenet check unfortunately shows a bunch of hits. One

poster defined "sand nigger" as "Arab."

This is the first time I've heard it applied to someone of Indian

descent.



I'm sure it goes back before Desert Storm. I've heard the term, as well as

'raghead', for both Arabs and Iranians in military slang. My younger

brother, who was stationed in Iran in the late 1960s, used the term

'raghead' and I'm pretty sure he mentioned the other term as being used by

others but didn't use it himself.



DMLance