As I believe was the intention of John Hardly's 27 Jan 07 - 07:46 AM
post, it should be noted that "Afro-American" and "African American" refer to the same groups of people but they are not the same referents.

As the Wikipedia article on "African American" indicates, since the late 1960s "African American" {not "Afro-American"} is the formal group referent for people who used to be called "Negroes" and "Colored people".

Here is a direct quote from that Wikipedia article:
"Previously acceptable terms that are now viewed as archaic (and, outside of historical contexts, even insulting) include Negro and Colored; today, the most common term is probably African American, with Black also commonly accepted since the late 1960s"...

-snip-

Fwiw, the term "African-American" was first written with a hyphen.
I believe this practice {and all other hyphenated referents}was dropped because of Americans preference for simplicity.

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It should also be noted that the term "African" was used for Black Americans prior to the late 1960s, 1970s as reflected in historical documents as well as African American church denominations as "African Methodist Episcopal" and African Methodist Episcopal Zion".

I believe that the pride Black Americans felt in the 1960s because a number of Afican nations became independent of European colonization during that decade gave a great deal of impetus to the referent change from "Colored people" to "African American". However, fwiw, the term "colored people" is still found in the name of the civil rights orginization NAACP {National Association for The Advancement of Colored People}.

The use of "African" connects us {Black Americans} to a geographical location like "Italian American", "Irish American", "German American" does. Imo, a major reason why the term "Afro American" lost to "African American" was the fact that Afro" was used widely used during the 1960s-1970s as a natural hair style for Black people.

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For your information, "Black" is an appropriate informal referent for people who are African American. Because I grew up during the time when Afican Americans waged vigorous efforts to get the word "Negro" capitalized {as was the case with other racial referents}, when "Black" is used, I prefer it capitalized and used along with "people" {such as "Black Americans", "Black people", "Black women", "Black man", and not "The Blacks"}. I use the referent "White" the same way.

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Who determines what is appropriate or inappropriate? The people who the term refers to, that's who.

According to kujichagulia {self-determination},rthe second principle of Kwanzaa, we have the right and obligation "to name ourselves, and speak for ourselves, rather than being named, and spoken for by others". {definition from Maulana Karenga-creator of Kwanzaa}

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Also, for your information, since at least the 1980s, the term "people of color" {not "colored people"} has also been widely used {by African Americans and others} to refer to all people throughout the world who are non-White.

I prefer that the goal be a world where race & ethnicity has no positive or negative valuation. I'm not a proponent of a color blind world that denies differences in race & ethnicity.

Having said that, I recognise the inherent racism in the social {if no longer legal} rule that "one drop of Black blood" makes a person Black. For example, I believe that no matter what he {or she} looks like, a person who has White ancestry and Black ancestry should be able to racially identify himself {or herself} as either White or Black. However, since race is largely a social construct, and since people have been informally taught to use visual clues to determine their and other persons'racial identity, if a person with dark skin color and other physical features-including hair texture- that are used to identify a person as "African American" calls himself {or herself} White, he better prepare himself for significant challenges on most {if not on all fronts}.