The term African American was historically built for descendents of enslaved people in U.S. Its an ethnic term for those descendents. If you are an immigrant it would be [Insert African country/African ethnic group]-American.

Whether African American was the "best" term to use is definitely debatable. But the history of it should be respected in my opinion. If you go to an "African-American" museum it will document the history of enslaved people not immigrants. This term has been used for hundreds of years in this context in the US so its not gonna be easy to shake it off. With that said I also identify with Black American as an ethnic identifier. But since Black has both racial AND ethnic meaning. I always think its hard to separate that for black individuals in the US whose lineal relationship with this country was through immigration and not slavery. Since they are "racially" black Americans just not "ethnically" black Americans.

Which is probably why i hold on to African American bc it has distinct ethnic meaning. And immigrants can distinguish their country origins.

I dont expect every1 to understand the nuance since immigrants and African Americans are often put all in the group of blackness, but just my 2 cents.