Hokay- lemme 'splain:
I'm one of those "human gumbo" style black guys who hates almost all of the terminology that has come along in my lifetime. My ancestry includes Native American, Puerto Rican, Arabic, German, French, Italian, and Eastern European Jews, just to name a few, so things like "African American" just sound
blech to me.
Heck, I'm actually 1/4th Puerto Rican, so I could call myself a "Quarter-Rican."

...but then again, THAT particular lineage can be traced back to the Middle East...
So, black for 38 years, black 4-Evah! (Oh yeah...and I'll also accept being called American!)