In no way is this a racist question. I simply want to educate myself and get a better insight.
A few months back I overheard a conversation between two African American girls at school. ‘GIRL A’ referred to ‘GIRL B’ as an African American. To my surprise, ‘GIRL B’ got very upset. She stated that she wasn’t born in Africa therefore she wasn’t “AFRICAN AMERICAN”, that she was only Black. I told a couple of my African American friends about this conversation and they all told me that girl was wrong. Anywho, is it more appropriate to say “African American” or “Black”?
≈ nohglf2013-06-24T20:32:36Z
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African American is considered the socially accepted term versus using the term black. If someone is from another country, say Haiti for example and they come to the U.S. they may tell you that they are not African American but Haitian (if they came from another country they may say that they are that nationality and not African American).
Most people don't get offended by the term African American. I'm mixed myself and I wouldn't mind if most people referred to me as African American or Black. I think more often then not you would be more safe using the term African American although I'm sure that there plenty of people that are fine with being referred to as Black.
To answer your question, I would say most times African American would be fine to use.
That depends if someone has close African roots I believe African American is the proper term, but if not Black may be the proper term. I have close African roots, so African American would be appropriate to me.
I say black, especially to friends who are black, they don't seem to care. I'll say african american if I'm making a point or something, but I don't do that in general discussions.