Azizi - No particular beef with anything you're saying, but this surprised me: "So in spite of the fact that "Black" [the informal term] and "African American" [the formal referent] have definitional
{if that is a word} problems, for at least the last forty years, these referents have been constant, and given the various changes that we have made in our group referents since, in my opinion, that's a good thing." Forty years takes us back to the 'sixties, when I was a kid. In those days, where I lived (Windsor - right beside Detroit), the polite or neutral racial designations were "coloured" or "negro"; "black" as I recall was a dubious term until the more "militant" black leaders (Stokely Carmichael et al) decided that "black" was the preferred term. From what I've been given to understand, Rev. King himself had to wrestle with that one before coming 'round. As for "African-American", was this term really in common use in any circles (outside universities!) before about ten years ago? Don't think I ever heard it much before then ...