If I was born in Africa...and both my parents are English, and we come to the United States, I am not African American...I am English.
‘Black’ doesn’t refer to a person’s skin color (many from India are much ‘blacker’ than people descended from Africa) but rather means someone whose ancestors are from sub-Saharan Africa, no matter what their actual skin color might be.
‘African’ apparently doesn’t mean someone from the continent of Africa, but rather someone from sub-Saharan Africa who happens to also be ‘black’. People from Egypt or North Africa who become Americans are not ‘African-Americans’.
Elon Musk was born in Africa. He became an American. Logic would say he must be, in some sense, an African-American. But apparently, that label is reserved for those whose ancestors, or at least one of whose ancestors might have been sub-Saharan African.
I’m working on the NYS census for 1810...part of the Federal Census. It lists Free blacks.
Reserved by whom? The same group that tells people they can't use the word niggardly or thug and definitely can't use a word that they themselves use all the time. Logic trumps that nonsense.