Nancy Pelosi tried to offset the storm of criticism against new Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar's succession of anti-Semitic remarks by claiming "I don't think Ilhan Omar is Anti-Semitic. She has a different experience in her use of words, and she doesn't understand that some of them are fraught with meaning she doesn't realize." Pelosi showed her ignorance of the cultural and ethnic background that allowed Somali-born Omar to say what she said, and mean what she said. But Pelosi did stumble on the kernel of truth behind Omar's Jew-hating words.
So let's examine the "different experience" of Omar's use of words. For that we need to understand her background.