Something disturbingly stupid has been happening this semester. While I won’t go into specifics as long as the case remains open, someone has been getting harassed for her ethnicity.

Let me preface this discussion with the following disclaimer: This is not some politically correct touchy-feely whinefest, which should be obvious enough coming from a conservative columnist. No, this is much more serious and important than an ideological dissertation. This is a reflection on the harsh sting that comes when an abstract clich‚ becomes painfully and concretely real.

Those of us who have never experienced any form of “hate” firsthand have nothing but our own humanity on which to base our reactions to hate crimes.

Our own natural inclinations toward empathy are heavily augmented by a politically correct society, which instructs us to be aghast at hate. We learn to respond with appropriate reproach when “hate crimes” make the headlines, even when the hateful nature of the transgression is questionable. Our reactions become rote, elicited not by true sympathy for the victim, but by the expectation of sympathy and, of course, the ever-present threat of being a bigot yourself if you’re not appropriately appalled.

As a white female who has never been subjected to any worse insult than the typical liberals vs. conservatives banter, I will quickly admit that I had become very skeptical about the threat of “hate.” In my view, many “hate” crimes tended to involve more hype than hate.

A wise adage recommends we never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity. While stupidity’s bedfellow, ignorance, is as dirty a word as hate these days, it is nowhere near as fiercely offensive as cold-blooded malice. Ignorance and stupidity are usually innocent; malice, on the other hand, while it may be fueled by ignorance, requires the spark of bitter resentment that most plainly ignorant folks don’t bother to foster.

It is senseless and counterproductive to slap the innocently ignorant with the label of bigot and marginalize them. Such treatment might, in reality, plant the seed of resentment that can blossom into full-fledged malicious hate.

The domination of pseudo-hate crimes in the media quite detrimentally steals the thunder from real victims of real malicious ignorance. Having myself come to doubt the very existence of the latter form of harassment in modern America, I received a rude awakening when I began to witness it firsthand this semester.

Not a week into the school year, an individual I know, whom we shall call “Jane,” found her room ransacked. The personal items of she and her roommate were thrown all over the floor, her photographs of family and friends were rifled through, and cash that had been left in the open was missing.

Notes slipped under Jane’s door spew insults and threats, telling Jane she doesn’t belong here and should go back to where she came from. Mysterious phone calls and phantom knocks on the door haunt her room as well. People who know her feel genuinely disturbed, furiously angered and yet agonizingly helpless, as all we can do is reassure her that nothing the notes say in any way represents the opinion of the ISU community.

Sickeningly, the perpetrator of this prolonged attack probably fancies him- or herself a noble defender of some distorted America. Somehow he or she views Jane’s honest, hard-working presence as a threat to this country’s legacy of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

This country was built by smart, motivated people, regardless of their skin color or accent. The premise that “foreigners” somehow dilute the “American-ness” of our culture is inherently flawed: Simply coming to this country with a desire to work hard and succeed is the most truly American endeavor there is. A good citizen is not defined by what’s on the surface, but by what’s in the heart.

I relay these events simply to make people aware that things like this, unbelievable and ridiculous as it is, do still happen in America today — and on our campus at that.

The outpouring of support for Jane and anger at her harasser are welcome reassurance that the harasser’s assertions are decisively rejected by the vast majority of thinking ISU students.

As for the perpetrator and other like-minded individuals: think hard about why you believe what you do — it’s never too late to wake up and smell the true essence of the American dream.