"ese" suffix insulting/racist?

[Anne Gilbert]

Peter:

> Y'know, I'm not sure where all I've heard it.  I've had it vaguely
> associated in my mind with New York speech, but in recent years I've heard
> it often enough (though still infrequently enough that I notice) here in
> the Northwest as well, and from people who otherwise didn't sound like New
> Yorkers.  I haven't had the opportunity to find out if those I've heard
> here came from elsewhere, and if so, where.  I'm not sure how I connected
> it with New York--it's not one of the features that comes immediately to
> mind when I "play back" New York speech to myself.  Maybe some New Yorkers
> will confirm or deny that it's common there.

Interesting.  My father was born in Missouri, but spent most of life in and
around the Pacific Northwest.  However, he went to school "back East", at a
time when this part of the country was still more or less considered "the
Wild West", and people from this part of the country were considered vaguely
"uncouth".  I suspect he picked up "eece" at college, just as he picked up
"eyther" and "nyether"(and my mother did too, coming from  a similar
background and ending up at an East Coast women's college), because he
thought it souinded more "refined".  Otherwise, he sounded pretty "Pacific
Northwest-y" to me.
Anne G