I'm actually not very PC and enjoy off-color humor.

But this is simply bad professional writing. It would be like calling a group of people Japs, Ruskies, Pakis, or Chinamen. Even if we assume less derogatory intent, you probably wouldn't use Yank, Pommy, or Desi in this context either.

I remember that when I was a student everyone called Mathematical Analysis "anal" and then there's one guy whose Facebook profile pic was from a church and he said "the correct shortened term is MA".