I never heard this word in fifty years in NYC or anywhere else, and only know it from the classroom and in a Salinger story. I have never heard any derogatory ethnic terms in New York. We have better manners than most people realize, in that regard anyway.
Now, if you want to hear “Republican” and “extremist” uttered with blistering contempt, come on over to my neighborhood.
As one born and for a while raised in New York, I heard these terms often when I was a kid on Long Island,along with “guinea”, “wop”, “mick”, “sheeney”, “paddy”, etc. etc. You must have been raised in Bronxville or similar neighborhood, is all I can figure.
Jimmy the mick