Damnit.  I thought this thread was going to be about how real Africans dislike American blacks.  I saw a cool fight one time between a African and a black.  The black dude picked the skinny African guy up and slammed him into a concrete wall.  The funny part was the exact second the dude hit the wall the black guy yelled "Faggot!".  I couldn't stop laughing.

I work in a jail, racism is a real and daily thing at work.  "I have actually been called a "white devil", but racism is a real thing.  You don't know where to say black or african-american.  So PC is thrown out the door in sake of sensibility (one of the few places) if they "look" blakc or hispanic, then thats what they are.  It is wierd.  Kinda related to your story.  Sorry.

What I kinda thinks sucks is the whole predicament it puts us non-racists into.  My black friends are cool with me calling them black or chocolate or whatever, but that's probably because they know I'm not racist.  But I think our culture has made us overly sensitive to racial stuff.  Being a white kid from Michigan, and growing up surrounded by Mexican-Americans in southwest Texas, I sort of know what it feels like to be a minority, and I never thought it was a huge deal.  I literally was one of five white people in my high school's graduating class.  But I guess white-brown racial tension was never really as high as white-black tension so who knows.  But I don't really see importance of having to refer to a stranger as "African-American" vs "black".  But then again, I live in a different part of the country, and El Paso's black people are mostly military so they have a different perspective.  But maybe one day, we'll all just be some homogenized race of 'Americans' and people will pull up the archives of this website and laugh at the quaint little conversations we're having.

Ok, so let me shed some kind of light on this...since I am black

I have honestly thought that the term "African America" is like say Mr. President vs. Mr. Obama.  I know what you mean Cranberry, when folks will be squeamish because they don't know what to use when they are talking about races, I actually find it funny :)

Think about it....we all know people are black/white/tanned/mixed whatever...but the term "African America" is just a way for PC hungry people to not just say black.  I haven't really heard anyone complain.  If someone said, "hey, aren't you black?"  I wouldn't be offended by it, since at least they said that and not like, "hey negro!" 

But if you were say.....in the workplace....the "correct" way without pissing folks off would be "African American" 

I'll admit though, that I have used both, and for some reason, I have a problem calling people white...I usually say caucasion, I don't know, maybe I am just weird like that, but I find it more respectful (my opinion mind you) to say caucasion vs. white in most conversations, although when around co-workers it's African American or if I with friends, it's black. 

Nice posts btw

in a way, i think it's too bad that "Oriental" fell out of favor. It's more descriptive than "Asian" if you don't actually know what country someone's from. Asia's a big damn place, from Armenia to Indonesia, where as when one refers to the Orient, you're only talking about east Asia.

there are black people from other continents than africa and there are white skinned people from africa, so the term african-american is totally pointless. I know no one who is actually offended by the term "black" when used in freindly conversation.

The term african american sounds more offensive to me, it i were in that position. It sounds patronizing, like the whole country is too uncomfortable to use your skin color descriptively.

as was already pointed out, you would think nothing of refering to the "red headed couple" or the "tall couple". the traits are no more controllable that the color of your skin. so why is skin color such a profane topic?

I would like to see all hyphen-Americans drop the hyphen. To me, it's like putting whatever your hyphen is before the country you're living in. I was born in America, raised here, and have black skin. Besides my skin, I'm about as African as the Daily Show or Major League Baseball. I think it's about the same for any one born here. There's something special about the US we live in today. It's like if you embrace this country, and learn the rules, you can have most of what you want (some of y'all want some sick shit, and it's good for you to not have it. seriously). 

I don't take offence to any of the PC terms, because they come from trying not to piss me off. 

My sons grew up outside the USA, but they were taught to use "African-American" at their international school.

Unfortunately, they now think Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela  are African-Americans.