That's actually a very valudatable question,because not all people of color are of African decent,so to say African American,or African Canadian,or African European.Some people of darker shades of color are Hispanic,Pacific Islander,and some have only been in country 1 or 2 generations,yet some still,since the times of slavory.There is no set culture of dark skinned people,we are a mixed world,in the 22nd century,and this is very complicated yet acurate.Black is a term used as white.I prefer the shade chart: Light skinned,extra light skinned,med dark,dark,extra dark skinned.*+++++*

Yes, and No. What is PC today, will eventually become 'racist'. And then folks will decide upon a new "pc" term that too will eventually deemed racist. I've seen the cycle go around at least twice.

Does it really matter?

PC terms change and, frankly, I gave up trying to keep track of them. Black is incorrect because black people come in all shades. African American is incorrect because not all black people are from Africa and not everyone from Africa is black. I cannot think of any way to use a term that is accurate for any ethnicity. Even scientific classifications would not do the trick because 1) almost all of us are mutts to varying degrees, 2) the scientific community only recognizes four "races of humanity" and, for instance, Iranians are deemed "caucasian" and they are NOT white. From what I have seen, "black" vacillates between politcally OK and incorrect.

"The term black was used throughout but not frequently as it carried a certain stigma. In his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. uses the terms Negro 15 times and black 4 times. Each time he uses black it is in parallel construction with white (e.g., black men and white men). With the successes of the civil rights movement a new term was needed to break from the past and help shed the reminders of legalized discrimination. In place of Negro, black was promoted as standing for racial pride, militancy and power. Some of the turning points included the use of the term "Black Power" by Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) and the release of James Brown's song "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud". In 1988 Jesse Jackson urged Americans to use the term African American because the term has a historical cultural base. Since then African American and black have essentially a coequal status. There is still much controversy over which term is more appropriate. Some strongly reject the term African American in preference for black citing that they have little connection with Africa. Others believe the term black is inaccurate because African Americans have a variety of skin tones. Surveys show that when interacting with each other African Americans prefer the term black, as it is associated with intimacy and familiarity. The term "African American" is preferred for public and formal use. The appropriateness of the term "African American" is further confused, however, by increases in black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. The more recent black immigrants may sometimes view themselves, and be viewed, as culturally distinct from native descendants of African slaves." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people#United_States

No. Not that I know of, other than Multiracial (but that still wont cover everyone). Black may not be PC, but it's what I and many of my friends refer to ourselves as. It might be a lot easier if people stopped referring to the dominant or favorite race in their genetic makeup and go for multiracial...as I've yet to meet Blacks who didn't qualify as or fall short of Multiracial. Like someone already said, PC terms often become racist. But what they didn't really mention is why. I feel like they do becuase people take a term with a real meanign and no harm and make it into an insult. For example: Quite a while, those who had developmental issues were refered to as Reatrds or lame. The term probably wasn't neg. until poeple began referring to people as Retards/Lame as an insult or part of slang. Same could be said with the word "Gay" as well.