They may have met Pakistani people but aren’t going to pay enough attention to know that. They’ll just go with some generic Muslim slur (it does not matter if they aren’t Muslim).
I am unfortunately around a lot of racists at work (school bus driver). We have a few black drivers so they can’t really use the second term you mentioned. They actually use “native” to refer to black people in polite company, a euphemism about as clever as “let’s go Brandon”.
Afaik it’s definitely a slur here in the US, but most people have never met a Pakistani person and thus don’t know to be racist against them.
They may have met Pakistani people but aren’t going to pay enough attention to know that. They’ll just go with some generic Muslim slur (it does not matter if they aren’t Muslim).
“Towel head” is probably the most common slur for Muslims here in the US - and they don’t even know that they’re referring to Sikhs, not Muslims.
Hoo, I’m glad you don’t live around racists. They’ve moved on from “towel head” and now refer to them as “sand n-”
I am unfortunately around a lot of racists at work (school bus driver). We have a few black drivers so they can’t really use the second term you mentioned. They actually use “native” to refer to black people in polite company, a euphemism about as clever as “let’s go Brandon”.