In response to Mickey191's Message below:
"I've noticed a change in the last few months of Suspected criminal's descriptions. They now say 6 feet-200 pounds- dark skinned. They show a sketch of an obviously African/American. Formerly it would have said: black man. Then we see the purp & he's definitely African/American. I think this is damn confusing if a neighborhood is on alert that a thug or rapist is wandering around. You could have a Black Irishman or an Indian selling books come under suspicion. I am nuts??"

As African/Americans come in many shades it would be pointless simply to say African/American when describing how someone looks. Equally, if you used that system you would have to describe white suspected criminals as
English/American, Irish/American, German/American. These descriptions are not valuable if you need to describe how the person looks.