People recognize certain nationalities with cultural markers such as appearance, fashion, food and music. In my case, I am more familiar with what belongs as Mexican cultural markers where people assume Spanish speakers are Mexican, where tacos are considered Mexican food, or determining that any type of Spanish music belongs to the culture of Mexican American. In reality not all of it does though, which is what this book states on how people change to fit in better with what is ‘American’. This relates to what Adiche states where majority of society would consider dark skin individuals to be African American even though there roots do not come from Africa, that is their classification. People classify certain aspects of different cultures to keep them categorized and informed on where they came from or belong. These cultural markers highlight a sense of identity that allows people to distinguish where the roots are coming from.
All these markers serve as identifiers to America; to start off appearance is a cultural marker that is always being altered in order to fit in, it is the first thing any person sees of a person. Infemelu tries to avoid this by trying to fit in and not feel like an outsider. She changes to an American accent and straightens her hair and then goes on to obtain a fake identity to find work. This allows a bit of the social judgments to decrease by categorizing where she belonged or where she came from. She discusses Michelle Obama and Beyoncé, two known African American women, and how their hair would affect the view of the public and the thought of them if they would allow it to be natural. “I have to take my braids out for my interviews and relax my hair… If you have braids, they will think you are unprofessional.” She states it would look unsophisticated and undone, but in reality this is their natural hair. People dye their hair different colors to fit in a different group, for instance, blonde is a popular hair color and it is mainly natural for Caucasians. That is where that color falls in category. The purpose of changing one’s hair is because they say they’re in a country that is not theirs and one has to do what you have to do if they want to succeed.
Additionally, hair is one of the biggest cultural markers used throughout the novel. It symbolizes how the American society created a new look they must achieve with their hair to fit in, where their natural hair is not as beautiful as the “American” women’s hair. Finally, deciding to stay true to her natural roots over the artificial hair the others would choose, Infemelu embraces her African American independence. She states, “You're always battling to make your hair do what it wasn't meant to do” because as stated before these women straighten their hair to make it fit in with society. In the Mexican culture I believe the most traditional hair style is in two braids. This hair style is done during festive days for Mexicans, so it is very common to see them on Mexicans. What also connects to this is how these braids are named after their roots, such as the French braid, the Dutch braid and the Mexican braid. They are all different except they are distinguished by how they’re made and can be classified at sight just as humans are classified at sight.
Not only the way people style their hair but also the way they dress has a lot to do as a cultural marker. Moreover, the way a person dresses is a way of expressing modesty to your culture, depending on moral values, religion, political views and the environment is how someone will dress. By clothing yourself according to the culture one wants to fit in satisfaction is felt and encouragement to be part of the social relationship groups without having a cultural tag. What you wear influences thinking and the outlook towards your own life as well as identifying what culture you’re in. The clothes one wears also categorizes the different classes you’re in and where you are ranked in society. For example, people like to buy branded items to fit in the middle or higher classes. Another example is people wearing uniforms and the culture they are a part of such as doctors or policemen. The value of clothes shows the value the value you have in society. People dress up to fit the part in society, for example in America during your wedding as a bride you wear a white long dress but in other countries this is not the case. Clothing helps people believe they belong to a certain group and gives them distinction from other cultures.
Aside from clothing connecting as a cultural marker, food is another aspect of it. Adding to this, people also use food to connect to their cultural identity. People with different backgrounds are accustomed to their family tradition food and how they prepare it. The preparation, the ingredients and type of food all goes back to the culture one comes from. We associate many countries with food and categorize them after the country they supposedly come from. For example, we crave Italian food but what necessarily is that? We know it as pizza, pasta and wine but of course there is much more than what we consider that culture. When we crave Mexican food we think tacos, beans, rice and margaritas but in reality this is just a cultural marker we use for this nation. We now search what culture of food we feel like eating whether it’s Mediterranean, Thai, Chinese, French, American, etc. Then we also state we want ‘authentic’ but what is considered authentic? Authenticity, is the preparation and result of how it would be expected to be done in that country of the food you’re having.
Many characteristics come together to form a culture such as appearance, hair in specific, fashion and food/music. Individuals that migrate over are torn between two cultures and the expectations to fit in but also keep their roots. This is where most have cultural identification problems and decide to change. Like the Nigerians, once they change and follow the American culture they begin to call them Americanah. The same goes for Mexican culture, when you go and visit Mexico they just begin to tell you “Gringo/a” which means a native speaker of English but is unrelated to race or their original culture. Although there are many cultural markers these are the main ones that distinguish groups and how they are characterized.
