African Americans

African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group of Americans (citizens or residents of the United States) with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to include only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American.

African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States (after White Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans). Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved blacks within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of 78 percent West African, 19 percent European and 3 percent Native American heritage, with very large variation between individuals. Immigrants from some African, Caribbean, Central American, and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term.

Woman

A woman is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent. The term woman is also sometimes used to identify a female human, regardless of age, as in phrases such as "women's rights". "Woman" may also refer to a person's gender identity. Women with typical genetic development are usually capable of giving birth from puberty until menopause. In the context of gender identity, transgender people who are biologically determined to be male and identify as women cannot give birth. Some intersex people who identify as women cannot give birth due to either sterility or inheriting one or more Y chromosomes. In extremely rare cases, people who have Swyer syndrome can give birth with medical assistance. Throughout history women have assumed or been assigned various social roles.

Etymology

The spelling of woman in English has progressed over the past millennium from wīfmann to wīmmann to wumman, and finally, the modern spelling woman. In Old English, wīfmann meant "female human", whereas wēr meant "male human". Mann or monn had a gender-neutral meaning of "human", corresponding to Modern English "person" or "someone"; however, subsequent to the Norman Conquest, man began to be used more in reference to "male human", and by the late 13th century had begun to eclipse usage of the older term wēr. The medial labial consonants f and m in wīfmann coalesced into the modern form "woman", while the initial element, which meant "female", underwent semantic narrowing to the sense of a married woman ("wife"). It is a popular misconception that the term "woman" is etymologically connected with "womb", which is from a separate Old English word, wambe meaning "stomach" (of male or female; modern German retains the colloquial term "Wampe" from Middle High German for "potbelly"). Nevertheless, such a false derivation of "woman" has appeared in print.

Dark Girls

Dark Girls is a 2012 documentary film by American filmmakers Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry. It documents colorism based on skin tone among African Americans, a subject still considered taboo by many black Americans. The film contains interviews with notable African Americans including Viola Davis. It also reports on a new version of the 1940s black doll experiment by Kenneth and Mamie Clark, which proved that black children had internalized racism by having children select a white or a black doll (they typically chose white) based on questions asked. In the updated version, black children favored light-skinned dolls over dark-skinned dolls.

Scenes

Dark Girls explores the many struggles, including self-esteem issues, which women of darker skin face allowing women of all ages recount "the damage done to their self-esteem and their constant feeling of being devalued and disregarded.”(Haque)

Duke and Berry even take it a step farther and interview African American men who claim they could not date a woman of dark skin. One young man interviewed saying “They [dark girls] look funny beside me.”

American

American(s) may refer to:

Organizations

Sports teams

Music Inc.

Music Inc. is an album by American jazz trumpeter Charles Tolliver's Music Inc. with a Big Band recorded in 1970 and first released on the Strata-East label.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Jason Ankeny awarded the album 4½ stars stating "The remarkable Music, Inc. Big Band remains the apotheosis of trumpeter Charles Tolliver's singular creative vision. Rarely if ever has a big band exhibited so much freedom or finesse, while at the same time never overwhelming the virtuoso soloists on whom the performances pivots".

Track listing

All compositions by Charles Tolliver except as indicated

Personnel