From my own direct and indirect experiences, my sense is that African American is the appropriate formal group name that refers to Black Americans {people of any Black African descent who live in or are from the United States}. "Black American" and "Black people" are appropiate informal terms for those same people. "The Blacks" and "the American Blacks" are inappropriate {dare I say} politically incorrect group referents for people of any Black descent who live in or are from the United States.

Some individuals capitalize the word "Black" when it is used as a racial referent, and some people don't. My reason for capitalizing the word "Black" when it is used as a racial referent is because other racial, nationalities, and ethnic group names are capitalized {British, Irish, Spanish, Canadians, Japanese, Indians, Chinese, Polish, etc.} The other reason why I capitalize "Black" when it is used as a racial referent is that I grew up at a time when there were vigorous efforts to make sure that the word "Negro" was capitalized. At that time "Negro" was the favored racial referent for Black Americans, and it almost always was printed with a small "n" whereas other ethnic, racial, and nationality names were capitalized. The position of those advocating for the use of a capital "N" for "Negro" was that failure to do so gave the message that Black Americans were "less than" all other indivuals and groups of people. The efforts to make sure that the first letter int he word "Negro" was capitalized were successful. However, about twenty years after that {give or take some years}, by the early 1970s, the formal group referent "Negro" was changed, first for a brief time to
"Afro-American" and then to "African American". to "n"Negroensure that were eventually successful. However, if "Negro" is used, and especially if that word is not capitalized, it's considered an insult as it carries the negative connotations of a stereotypically servile and passive Black person. Some Black writers purposely use the word "Negro" or "negro" to diss another Black person.

I'd like to also reiterate that there are sub-groups within the African American race. In addition to Black people of from Canada, from various Caribbean nations, South American nations, European nations, etc., there are also African Americans who are of Gullah descent, Creole descent, and more. Also, one need not have any slave ancestors in order to be considered-and to consider yourself-African American.

Sometimes, it's a matter of self-selection who is or is not African American. It certainly isn't always physical appearance {skin color, hair texture, lips, and nose structure}. Most Americans {UnitedStaters} know that for a long time, the legal rule in the United States was that anyone was Black who had one drop of Black blood, no matter how many generations ago that was. To some extent, this is still the social rule. But,times they are changin regarding that too. And-in my opinion, that's okay-well, maybe, it depends on why a person decides to "opt out" of Black racial identity.

In my opinion, the "one drop of Black blood" ruling is inherently racist. A person who is biologically mixed race should be accepted as either one of his parent's races, or both of them, regardless of how he or she looks. But-as is the case with Senator Barack Obama-a person who has one White birth parent and one Black birth parent is not accepted as a member of the White race.

It's true that the referents "African American" and "Black American" are imprecise for a number of reasons. But, the group referent "American" is imprecise also. The United States has coopted the referent "American", though it could refer to Canada, and to South American and Latin American nations. In recognition of how imprecise the word "American" is, on this international forum I sometimes use the tongue in cheek referent "UnitedStater" to refer to myself and to other people who live in the United States.

To conclude this lengthy post, I'd like to also repeat what I wrote in an earlier post-in my opinion, people should respect the right of people within a racial and ethnic group to chose the group referent/s they prefer for themselves. Those should be the referents that are used. Granted, these referents may change over time, but continuing to stay up with the times, and changing with those times is often a good thing, is it not?

Disclaimer:
It should go without saying-but since it may not-let me clarify that I'm sharing this information from my own perspective, and I am not speaking for all other African Americans. I'm aware that some African Americans as well as some non-African Americans may disagree with what I've said. And needless to say, I'm open to hearing from other folks about what I've said.