Oh, sure, I can see the logic in choosing some wildly arbitrary word in order not to raise alarm bells. But that's why it pegged me as so odd. It seems unusual for a racially derogatory term to be chosen with such care, and with attention to discretion, of all things.

Your comment that "slur" might not be the right word because it's not a word that people would use with the target group is also interesting. Whatever this is, it apparently plays a different role from the more mundane epithets.