I tend to describe it as "a language not optimized for raw processing speed" as opposed to being a slow language. As in, it is an abstraction that is meant to speed up development(and be easier to read etc) rather than be the fastest while running.
Exactly. I like to say that Python is one of the fastest languages if you measure by metrics other than "raw processing speed". One very important metric is speed of development - and due to a combination of lack of the compilation step, its dynamic nature, ecosystem of libraries and clean syntax, very few languages can match Python in that regard.