African American's Preference for 'Black' vs. 'African American'

http://adage.com/bigtent/article?article_id=120429&search_phrase=Is+black+back%3F

I can see both sides but in all actuality, our society has become so careful as to not step on anyone’s toes that it’s getting ridiculous. People need to not take things so seriously and besides, a name only has meaning if you place meaning behind it; otherwise it’s just a name.

I don’t know why the politically correct term is “African-American.” I suppose you could see who is from America and who is a foreigner but sadly in these days there is not enough awareness to differentiate between a Nigerian and an African American and there’s also way too many people in this world to know all the differences.

With America being the melting pot it is, what name to call darker-colored people shouldn’t be that big of an issue. It gets on my nerves more than anything when they do make it a big issue because you don’t see Indians protesting what they’re called…think about it.

Indians were here first, why then are they called American Indian or Native Indian. It should just be Indian and you should know. But often times American Indians are confused with East Indians. In America people call East Indians, Indians…would it then be politically incorrect? But you don’t see us all up in arms.

The only push towards what name to call Indians is to use American Indian not Native American, because anyone can be a native to this country. I do support the movement from being called American Indian rather than Native American but the point is that we don’t get all wrapped up in the issue. Its not that it’s not important, it’s just that we know there are more important things to us than to be nit-picky about every little thing.

I think the more important and interesting research to be done here is how society moves from using one term to another. How does it transition and how does it spread to others to use it as well?

That would be worth looking into.