We pretend that Hawai'i is a beautiful melting pot where issues of race, color, ethnicity and culture just don't get in our happy way, but bigotry is always there, smoldering away like an underground fire in a landfill. Every so often, something happens like the Dog Chapman rant or the Waikele beating, and the flames pop up to the surface where they can't be ignored.

It is shocking to read the message boards and story comments from people who defend Chapman's rant. You would think it would be indefensible.

In taking the "what's the big deal?" tack, some actually seem to be likening Chapman's choice of language to the kind of crude, stereotypical "ethnic humor" that people in Hawai'i supposedly all love. Or they recount personal stories of being called some other racial epithet at the store or football game.

Sure, there's pain to go around. Here in Hawai'i, no matter what your heritage, there's going to be someone who doesn't like you because of it. It's human nature. But you cannot equate the hateful word used in Dog's telephone tirade with other racial slurs. No other race in this country has been subjected to the history of slavery, murder, discrimination and hatred as African-Americans. Getting called a stupid —— (fill in the blank with a derogatory term for Caucasian, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Japanese, whatever) is hurtful, insulting and wrong, but it does not compare.

In the age of online opinion, though, where every news outlet and blogger pleads "Tell us what YOU think!" as though everyone's opinion carries equal and significant weight, this underground hatred is encouraged to come forth. Bigots who only mutter in public or yell behind the closed windows of their cars have the freedom to hurl their hatred from behind the safety of made-up screen names.

There are those who decry the "thought police." True, we're free to think what we want. It is legal to be a racist in your heart. But that doesn't mean it's right. It is a weakness of the mind and of the soul. You can say all the filthy things you want to in the privacy of your own home, but then you can't have a national TV show in which you make yourself out to be a hero on a mission from God, holding hands and saying prayers before you break down people's doors.

When these issues do flare in our community, it should be an opportunity not only for public discourse but for personal evaluation. It should be a call to open hearts and minds and to foster true aloha. It should not be a chance for racists to opine on just why they feel hatred is justified.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.