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In Bush lingo “gifted” means “ethnic”

Old Blog Import

President Bush greeted the people of Iraq on their TV screens. You are a good and gifted people,” he told them as Arabic script appeared below his face. I don’t know Arabic, but I’m sure the translation didn’t convey what Bush means by gifted.” He doesn’t mean exceptional. He means ethnic.

This is the seventh time Bush has used the word “gifted” during his presidency. Once he was reading from a script at an arts award ceremony. Two other times, he was referring to black people: Bill Cosby and Martin Luther King Sr . On the other four occasions, he was talking about Iraqis or Palestinians .All Iraqis and Palestinians. What, in Bush’s eyes, makes Iraqis and Palestinians so gifted? The fact that they can run functioning societies .

William Saletan in Slate.

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