Friday. March 5. I955

SCARLET AND BLACK

Page Thre-

 

l'wo foreign Students View America

I [all Sees

0n the eve of my departure
to America, a friend duly
warned me that here was found

the truest image or two modern
ngS: Machine and Mammon.
Indeed, when I first saw hun-
dreds of beautiful cars parked
outside Miami Airport, 1 won-
dered, not knowing to whom
they belonged, why on earth
should an automobile factory
be built at that inconvenient
spot. And as I later counted
amazedly the number of splen-
‘did bathrooms in American
low-ceilinged, cracker box<
shaped houses. it dawned upon
me chat perhaps their etiluence
was also showing the influence
of their affluence.

But after four years of lib-
eral arts, especially psychol-
ogy, these earlier impressions
gave way to I different View of
the American scene. What is
really fascinating is not the
wealth shimmering from coast
to coast, The American, is new
chap, is himself the marvel. He
is pro-eminently pragmatic.
The proof of the pudding is in
the eating — this philosophy
haunts his mind constantly
like a nursery rhyme. A cole
lege professor in jeans clean-
ing rat cages or a businessman
giving money for philanthropic

 

Wallace loh

Pragmatism, Paradox

reasons as well as for lowering
his income-tax bracket is prag-
matism in action. But in this
neterogeneous society with con-
flicting‘values, the American

is also a bundle of curious
paradoxes. For example, he
may simultaneously be chival-
ric to the fair sex, yet not very
bashful in accepting the offer
to split expenses with his date;
so fond of his dog, yet so ad-
verse to his mother-in-law;
generous in donating to worthy
causes such as the Aid Com-
mittee for Unmarried Mothers,
yet so pennyrconscious even
with his married daughter.
Yet, the American system
is inspired by lofty abstractions
— this in the most practical of
people — and the gap between
the ideal and the real leads to
confusion and anxiety, For the
American is is Don Quixote; he
set out on a journey with in
vincible good will for mankind
but mistakes inns for castles,
windmills ior giants. He looks
up to the stars of freedom and
too late realizes that his feet
have slipped into the quick-
sands of Selma and Harlem.
Occasionally, overbelief
in pragmatism has restrained
his artistic expression to auto-
mobiles and cosmetics. Sympv

 

tomsrof a boredom neurosis
are manifest behind his mar-
ketplace antl~lntellectunl cmw-
ing. He can hardly sit still: the
telephone, the appointment
book, constantly drag him
here and there and life be-
comes one damn thing after an-
other. He can only rest on the
psychoanalyst’s c o u ch, but
there dies of heart attack.
Perhaps, the American Dream
will be fulfilled when the
Kin g do in of Behaviorism
comes, and a new breed of
Homo Americanus is “condh
finned" and “shaped" while
perched in deluxe Skinner.
houses

Out of this potpourri of trails
there emerge: a nice country
guy, robust and optimistic,
lacking in manners but having
simple grace. And ensconced
in this Iowan hamlet, I enjoy
fully ~— as do Tocquevillc once
said — meeting this chap, ”my
spiritual passage to more than
American." For a nation like
this is not just born, any more
than the figures of American
wenches are born. It has to be
built. 50 I continue collecting
specimens in this garden,
which, I hope, will someday res
place the weeds in some waster
land of Asia. '

 

Felix lungu

lungu Distressed By

While still in Africa, the few
he met told him so much about
the glories of their America.
That is how he began dreaming
about the day when ha would
leave for America. His anxiety
to see America grew like a
crystal, until it came to a point
whereby America became his
drenmland.

Then the day came when he
had to bid farewell to his rela<
tions and friends at an African
airport. His plane takes off, he
is now on his way to his dream.
land.

But, within fifty miles or so
off the coast of America, the jet
pilot gives a warning, “Fasten
your seat belts ladies and

entlemen; we are approaching
stormy weather." The excited
black dreamer fastens his seat
belt too since he considers him-
self one of the gentlemen; or
at least at home he was! In
America he may at times just
be one of the “ain’t you ‘boys’
look alike!” Anyway his jet
buzzes into the new John F.
Kennedy airport. It has finally
brought him to his dreamland.

Now he is breathing Ameri-
can air. He gets off of the plane
and is led to the immigration
officer who checks his passport,
X-ray photographs, and some
other trivials which the dream-
er considers unnecessary. He
says “Hulloh!” to the immigra-
tion officer. The officer replies

 

by saying “Hi." The dreamer
is really confounded, no kidding
at all; he says to himself,
“What is ‘Hi'? At home we say
‘Hulloh’ to another 'Hulloh', but
here ‘Hulloh' then ‘Hi'; so this
is American talk! Anyway I’ll
find out." He is taken to a hotel
in New York City where he
will probably dream his first
American dreams.

Ha spend two days in New
York City arranging to leave
for his final destination. What
he perceives in these two days
leaves definite marks on his
mind. Now, at least, he has be-
gun to know America not only
by listening to an American
mouth, but also by llVlng in
Amerlca. He realizes that after
all his dreams in Africa about
American life were not all true,
some were undoubtedly illus-
ory.

He spends a year in America,
only to be attacked by a deadly
disease. This is the disease he
will ever suffer from as long as
there is no real fundamental
change in America. He realizes
that after all ‘some people think
that he is just another black
boy which is of course true,
good only for quite a bad num—
ber of vices. He is always con-
sclous of his Negroness. This
consciousness is his greatest
bother. He is never allowed to
forget it. After talking to many

 

Brutality

other black African students,
he learns that they are just as
confounded as he is. They even
tell him, “If you want to know
America real well go to Birm-
ingham; there you are going
to faint.” However, the foreign
student, especially the black
one, is not naive about Ameri-
can heterogeneity and so he
comforts himself with the
thought that at least not all
America is Americanism, al-
though the bulk Of it is.

I say these things so that the
Grinnell liberal arts students
may know what sort of life
some of its population learn to
live, especially outside the
small Grillnell Atlantis. And far
more important, so far as I am
concerned, that they may un-
derstand the so-called Anti-
Amerlcan attitude that seems
to be prevalent in free Africa
today. The reasons for this atti-
tude are not complicated at
all: the people of Africa are by
no means facists. If they are,
it’s just that they have learned
the doctrine from those who are
trying to civilize them.

Africans are just afraid that
too much American influence
might taint their newly won
freedom by the introduction of
the hateful inentalities at people
like Sheriff James Clark, and

LUNGU—
(Continued on Page 0

Within a month, the fate of
lthe JLA will be decided.

According to Waldo 5. Walk-
er, associate dean of the col~
lege, the curriculum commit-
tee and executive council are
mulling over the pros and cons
of the ordeal that has been a
nemesis tn Grinnell juniors
since 1961.

The faculty will review and
investigate the reasons for
giving the JLA and will then
discuss the specific recom-
mendations made by the curv
riculum committee and execu<

JLA Before the Committee. ,
fate to Be Decided Shortly j

tivc council.

“The basic idea behind giv-
ing the JLA was to use it as a
diagnostic tool to assess ham,
well our students had assimia
listed the general education
aspects of the Curriculum"
said Walker. :l

Walker emphasized that
while students who pass the
JLA receive four credits, 11st
who fall it have no penaltie‘
imposed on them. "There has
never been a requirement to’
pass lt—only to take it," bl

 

l. Gwnﬂng your deﬁes?
Tour. a laugh,

a. I thought you were loaded.

tbnva elf-Lily u dollar
thirtydwo and three pages
of green stamps.

5. Didn't you tell him fusks
were in?

He told me I’d have to
demonstrate a more sensible
attitude toward money before
he‘d shell out anything

above the subsistence lrvcl.

Manpower Development Division.

llama omoe: ital; Ava. of tin Americas,

 

mwsyl ii ureit,tc.u
bardly all” to wake up
tomorrow morning,

4. Cult your dad. Healways
comes through.

Not since he found out
about that pair of elephant
tuslu I bought for $198.50.

' That's no problem. Next time
you get some dough, get
yourself a Living insurance
policy horn Equitable,

It's one of the most sensible
things you can do with your
money. it guainutees secu-
rity for your family, builds
cash values you can always
use, and by getting it now.
when you're young,
you pay less.

I'll do itl But don’t tell dud

about my new smiled
alligator.

For inlornmtmn about Living insurance, see The Mun from Equitable.
For information about career opportunities at Equitable, see yam
Placemmt omcer, or write to Edward D. Mcbougal, Manager.

‘lhe‘EQlllfABlE'life Aﬁuran‘ci‘Socieiy at the United Shlﬁ

N-w York, N. K. lunls cumin-bl. 19“

An Equal appcmmtu Employm-

 

