Japanese Student’s Preconceptions Prove Inaccurate

When Japanese exchange student Ai Hasegawa arrived in the United States last year, she had never met a black person and knew precious little about the racial diversity of her new home. She was apprehensive, she says now, when she learned that her Carson host family, whom she would be living with for seven months, was black.

“I was scared,” she recalled.

But as she boards a flight back home today, Ai will take with her a newfound appreciation of African-Americans and U.S. culture. Ai (pronounced “eye”) now relishes the diversity that Carson High School offered, as well as its year-ending prom. Her date just happened to be African-American.

Ai, 17, credits her change in attitude to seven months of living with the family of Dorothy and Chester Ross and their two children. In retrospect, Ai said the experience was a lesson in race relations.

“After I go home, I tell my friends it’s the same” as living with a any family, said Ai, whose name means “love” in Japanese. “There’s no difference. (Japanese friends) ask what you eat for dinner (at the Ross’ house). It’s a stupid question. They eat food.”

William R. Smith, western director for the Buffalo, N.Y.-based International Fellowship Inc., said the Ross family is believed to be their only black host family this year among hundreds in the Western United States.

“We get our families from the most part through the schools, which recommend them,” Smith said. “We don’t question whether a family is black or white. We look not at a family’s color but on their attitude and makeup.”

Before arriving, Ai said she had assumed that most Americans were white.

“In Japan, Japanese people are all the same,” Ai said, explaining that she did not expect the racial diversity she found in the United States.

Dorothy Ross, Ai’s host mother, said her goal in welcoming Ai to her family was to change the student’s preconceptions about African-Americans. When they first met last November, Ross said she noticed the shocked look on Ai’s face.

“But it wasn’t her fault,” Ross said. “It was something she learned, like most kids learn, from adults. I wanted to make sure she went back home with the right (attitude). And she was able to learn that we eat like she eats, we sleep like she sleeps, we do everything just like she does. We are just like anybody else.”

Dhyan Lal, Carson High’s principal, noted that thanks to the influence of Dorothy Ross and Ai’s experience here, “she’s become a completely different person.”

For Dorothy Ross, it took nothing but hugs to break down the cultural barriers that initially separated the Japanese student and her host family. Ai had not been accustomed to hugging new acquaintances, but in the Ross family, hugs come frequently.

“That’s just the way I am,” said Dorothy Ross, an elementary school teacher whose husband is a Los Angeles police officer. “I treat her just like I treat my own children.”

Ai quickly grew accustomed to the outward displays of affection. By the end of her stay, she was acting like a rambunctious American teen-ager--playfully fighting with and tossing a football in the living room with her host brother, Derrell, 17.

“America is fun,” Ai said. “It’s very different. Americans are not shy. If they want to talk about something, they talk. They don’t hold it inside.”

At the Ross family’s two-story home recently, Ai watched music videos in the living room. A Japanese tour guidebook and African-American periodicals rested on a coffee table. African-American paintings, and portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X lined the walls.

Host sister Debonee Ross, 22, a graduate of Xavier University, said the family had given Ai a much broader picture of American life.

“We were able to share a lot of our culture, our heritage with her,” she said.

For example, Ai noted that in Japan men almost never cook, adding that she was surprised to see Chester Ross preparing breakfast one morning.

She said it has been an especially interesting year to be in Los Angeles, with the riots, earthquakes and the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor all occurring during her stay.

“And it rained a lot,” dispelling a myth that Californians live in perpetual sunshine, she said.

The lack of her own car, a universal lament among teen-agers, is what Ai liked least about her stay. Los Angeles’ public transportation system leaves much to be desired, she said.

“You need a car,” Ai said. “If we want to go to somewhere, it’s far. In Japan, you go anywhere (by) bus or train.”

Among the most striking changes in Ai has been her physical appearance. She arrived in the United States as thin as a rail and with hair so straight that it could have been ironed. She was eager to hit the makeup counters at local malls.

She has since permed her hair, donned lipstick, pierced her ears, and is fond of wearing jeans and other “made-in-America” clothing.

And she gained 20 pounds.

“American food has many calories. I like it. I like pizza, ice cream, hamburgers,” she said.

When she returns to her home in Kyoto, Japan, Ai said she will resume her studies in preparation to enter a Japanese university. But she first plans to visit her grandmother, who has not seen a picture of Ai since her make-over.

“She will be surprised,” Ai said.