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-