"dirka dirka muhammad jihad / Surpa surpa bakala / Shoulda known they were fucking with a Marine." - A Marine sings about life in the Iraq lane. CAIR protests. Life goes on.
A while ago you asked me about the term "haji," and if I'd heard it used in a possibly derogatory sense. I said yes, but couldn't remember where or when--just that it was long, long ago. Going through my CDs from high school recently, I came across the Mighty Mighty Bosstones' debut "Devil's Night Out." It features a song called "Haji." The lyrics (available here: http://www.mp3lyrics.org/m/mighty-mighty-bosstones/haji/ ) seem to be little more than orientalist fantasies--the Bosstones were never noted for lyrical complexity. Anyway, what's interesting to me is that "DNO" came out in 1989--in other words before Iraq even marched into Kuwait. So the origins of the term fade deeper into the mists. It's also unclear precisely what would have been going on socially for Dicky Barrett to have heard the term himself.
Excellent catch, yo! In a related thread over at Cliopatria last year, Jonathan Dresner noted that It's probably from Johnny Quest: his sidekick (Sikh origin, would be my current guess based on my fuzzy memories and current knowledge) was named "Hadji" . Sounds plausible. As for Dicky Barrett, it should be noted that Jonny Quest entered syndication in 1986.
Hmmm...I also wouldn't be too surprised if the term has been around in immigrant communities in the east coast. I know in baltimore and DC, the term for fruit stand/roving fruit merchant is "araber", they actually make it into a plot element in "Homicide: Life on the Streets". I don't know what part of boston the mighty bosstones are from, but lebanese immigration to beantown has been going on at least since gibran khalil gibran's time. Just sayin, it just could be a local thing.