Could she possibly be so stupid she does not know it is a pejorative not unlike “little people”
RE: Did she really use the term ‘unwashed’?
Yes she did.
From : THE PHRASE FINDER
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-great-unwashed.html
Meaning
The common, lower classes; the hoi polloi.
Origin
This rather disparaging term was coined by the Victorian novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He used it in his 1830 novel Paul Clifford:
“He is certainly a man who bathes and ‘lives cleanly’, (two especial charges preferred against him by Messrs. the Great Unwashed).”
RE: Could she possibly be so stupid she does not know it is a pejorative not unlike “little people”
She knew. She thinks that the majority of us “unwashed” are uneducated enough to not know what she means. Like when CNN and MSNBC Reporters use TeaB@gger. They say it with a sly grin on their face, as if they are pulling one over on those not in the know.