I suppose this topic is better than another debate on the validity of “nigga” versus “nigger” in terms of self-descriptive invective and degrees of self-hate. But I digress.
The thing about the various terms used to describe native-born Americans of African descent is that they have always been mutable and, I suspect, always will be. The term is more accurately an ethnic designation, not a racial one, as Lamia pointed out.
In the States, lower-case “slave” and abusive “nigger” led to “coloreds” to “Colored”; to “negro”, to “Negro”; to “black” to “Black”; to “Afro-American” to “African-American”, and the wishy-washy all-inclusive “People of color” with a few descriptive terms of racial purity like “octaroon”, “quadroon” and “mulatto” thrown in. (And the so-called genteel “nigras”, if you really want to split hairs. That one damn near started a riot after the Orangeburg Massacre.)
If you’re around 30 like I am, look forward to seeing at least two more shifts in the paradigm in our lifetime – the next one in about 10 years, if history is any indication. Personally, I’m voting “Cosbyites”.
“Black” (capital ‘B’, please, when talking of entire groups and if you’re writing for EBONY, lower case in individual descriptions) is a short, quick, non-offensive descriptive ethnic term that’s fine to be used informally in 90% of most situations – unless you’re around a hypersensitive Afrocentric who insists on African-American all the time. Me, I stick to ‘African-American’ for written coorespondence and formal speeches.
‘African-American’ is not wrong or stupid. It is, at worst, imprecise, but the Africa is there as a reminder of our ancestry. You may be offended by it for the implicit division of the hyphen, but guess what? That’s your hang-up. If that’s what a people want to call themselves, then it’s good manners to call them by their preferred name. Telling a group of people why (you, an irrelevant non-participant, thinks) it’s dumb, wrong or stupid to call themselves something they prefer to to be called is rude at least and presumptively bigoted at best. Smacks of that old ‘white man’s burden’ thing Kipling talked about.
This thing works both ways, incidentally. The old ‘if you look black, you must BE black’ thing that haunts Eldrick ‘Tiger’ Woods. (Try this on: Father is half African American, one-quarter American Indian and one-quarter Chinese. Mother is half Thai, one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter white.) With THAT kind of immediate ethnic heritage, it’s no wonder he calls himself ‘Cablinasian’. Even Colin Powell agrees black is a handy shorthand to describe him, but I’m reasonably sure Tiger wouldn’t appreciate it.
Look at my carefully selected, African birthname and know I prefer “African-American” over that bland “Person of color” crap ANY day. But describe me as black, if it gives you something to compromise on.
Vector: Nah, I ain’t offended.
Carina42: “Beige?”
spooje: Tell me, if the choices were “African-American” and “Coon”, which would you use?
spritle: They didn’t laugh? Hell, I laughed.
With regard to the hyphen itself, APA is just one academic style manual among many others, including the AP, UPI, New York Times, MLA and Strunk & White – most of which do advocate the use of hyphens.
Mjollnir: C’mere and say that.
super_head: I read your opinions and respectfully disagree, simply because the ‘African’ in African-American is not designated as anything but a symbolic regional point of origin, fancy hyphen included. It’s not really a racial designation, although many people (including many Blacks) think it is. It’s an ethnic one. Otherwise we WOULD call Jamacians, South Africans, Nigerian-born-transplants, etc. ‘African-Americans’. But they aren’t and we don’t.
I do agree that heritage and race aren’t the same - because race itself is a deep-rooted fallacy - but we’re a minority(!) opinion there.
Green Bean: If an Edisto or Cherokee tells me they prefer Indian, THEN I’ll say Indian. In the circles I travel, ‘Native American’ or a tribal designation is preferred. I’ve used ‘Native American’ since the heyday of AIM in the 1970s: I equate that with the still-in-use ‘Colored’ in NAACP.
Quadzilla: Many education textbooks editions are routinely updated for content in pedagogy, discipline or technology changes, but neglect PC concerns. Frankly, I’m shocked they capitalized ‘black.’ You sure Black isn’t the kid’s surname?
KJ: I seriously doubt if you’d be ‘offended’ if you looked black and people mistakenly jumped to that conclusion. Weary, sure… but you use too many smilies to strike me as being that thin-skinned. 
If you have a foreign accent, the minute you spoke you’d correct that misconception, no? If not, you could always go the Tiger Route and call yourself ‘Cablinasian’.
Space Vampire: I confess, I have always been amazed by the number of people who say ‘Black South Africans’ without realizing that, in a country with a populance less than 13% white, just how redundant that sounds.
Coldfire: You’re a silly. But yojimbo is worse for encouraging you.
I also often substitute “black” in other situations with “African American” just to show how stupid it is to always call black people “African American.”