Big Mick - "I only started using the term because the African descended community wanted it thus."

Exactly! That is why all of us "white" people back around the late 60s (and ever since) began using the term "black" as a racial designator. We were asked to do that BY "black" people. The African descended community in the USA...or their more vocal spokespersons at any rate...demanded to be called "black" as a point of pride! They wouldn't accept any other word. That's why it's so damned annoying to now be harassed by the children or grandchildren of those people when one innocently uses the word "black" in a multitude of other contexts.

What someone called an African-descended person before the late 60s, if someone was being absolutely polite and fully respectful toward their equality was this: "negro". Then we were told that no, that wasn't good enough. "Negro" had to be replaced with "Black".

The same sort of silly stuff has been raging around for the last hundred years over what to call Amerindians too...and no one can seem to agree on the perfect word. I'm sure that a new word will presently be found, though, since Native North American and First Nations Person are both just a bit too cumbersome to put up with for very long. ;-) I wonder what the new word will be?