If a group of people want to collectively be known as something I'm pretty ok with that. My main stipulation is it can't be complete bullshit. Don't like being called a Mormon? That's fine, what would you like for me to call you? A "Latter Day Saint"? Yeah, that's not going to happen.

The term African-American should imply two things about a person; they're from Africa and they currently have U.S. citizenship.

Charlize Theron is an African-American. (Photo by Sheksays on Flickr)

When used in this sense I have no problem with the term African-American. If you know somebody well enough to know their place of birth and their citizenship then it's a perfectly valid term. African-American is rarely used in this way, instead it is used as a descriptive term, which to me means it is used in an ignorant and racist way.

When you describe somebody you don't know as African-American what you're stating is that the person is black but you don't want to say the word 'black'. In doing this you're making an ignorant statement, as you're implying; the person is of African descent, only black people live in Africa and the person is American. I admit Charlize Theron is an extreme example as her roots in Africa probably don't go back that far. So let's look at other Africans.

Non-Black Africans

Colonel Gaddafi is the leader of Libya and a strong proponent of a more unified Africa. For my American readers; Libya is in Africa. Yes he is both African and whiter than a Sicilian in the summer time.

Here we see some Egyptians. You know, the Egypt that's the second most populous country in Africa.

If you saw these men on the streets of Portland would you describe them as African-American? Of course not; because they aren't black.

Although everyone above is an African those pictured below are not.

Non-African Black Folks

An Australian Aboriginal family.

A Jamaican man

Dominican guy

A black Israeli

To sum up my main points; not all black people are from Africa, not all Africans are black, you have no way of knowing if somebody is American or not without getting to know them.

Don't like the term black? That's fine, Negro would be acceptable to me. Don't like that either? OK, but come up with a term that's not completely ridiculous and inaccurate.