In response to the recent letter, “International students’ objective is to boost their home economies,” I must say I am surprised that Mr. Langfeldt attempted to counter Andrew Nguyen’s letter by justifying deplorable attitudes toward Asians based on a perceived economic war against China. Assuming, for a second, that this “war” exists (it does not), why does that make the ridicule we see every day OK?

Mr. Nguyen was bringing to light a serious issue that pervades the culture at Iowa State and, from what I’ve seen, universities around the country. At some point, it became socially acceptable to consistently make fun of Asians. Now, I’m not an uptight snob who wants to rid America of all off-color comedy; I’m as much a fan of “Tosh.0” as the next guy. The problem arises when attitudes like this become a cultural prevalence and start to border on aggressive dislike. Nowhere is this on display better than in Mr. Langfeldt’s letter.

Using the economy and “patriotism” as an explanation, the letter essentially reduces every Chinese student to a spy bent on taking down America through the nefarious practice of getting a quality education. This is absurd. Mr. Langfeldt is probably right when he says that Chinese students do not come here to help the U.S. economy; they come here, like everyone else, to secure an economic and professional future for themselves. We, as patriots, should be honored that intelligent, hard-working students chose to come to our country to do that.

Sure, a lot of them will return to their home countries and become a productive, skilled member of the workforce, but they also might design a new technology that expedites the process of constructing a computer chip, making iPads cheaper for all of us. The “Us vs. Them” mentality is a relic of an era before the information technology revolution. Economies around the world are dependent upon one another to thrive: If China collapses, we suffer, and vice versa.

Sure, it is in American interests that China not dominate the global economy, but an ideology that says either we succeed or “they” do creates a dangerous false dilemma that can perpetuate hate. We are not in the Cold War; teaching Chinese students engineering is not akin to teaching Soviets how to build a bomb that can kill hundreds of thousands of American citizens. That type of statement is incorrect and, beyond that, irresponsible.

In closing, I want to address the last sentence in Mr. Langfeldt’s article: “… patriotic people like myself are tired of watching our tax dollars get spent on BMWs and Corvettes.” It is ridiculous to think that our tax dollars pay for their cars. Our tax dollars barely even pay for their education. The Washington Post article, “Chinese students enroll in record numbers at U.S. colleges,” reports that 70 percent of international students’ primary source of funding for college comes from “their personal funds, family, government and other foreign sources.”

A deeper look at the study they cite shows that .6 percent of the funding comes from the U.S. government. And considering that, according to the article, international students spend $21 billion annually in the U.S., I would argue that international students are actually a boon for our economy. Not to mention the benefit it provides to our universities, bringing diversity and a global perspective to the middle of Iowa and bringing knowledge of the middle of Iowa to the other side of the world.

I resent the insinuation that in order to be patriotic, one must be xenophobic toward Asians. Patriotism requires knowledge about your taxes, your government and the global community in which you and your country participate.