White folk do make distinctions and boast about their ethnicities. The romantic French, The dignified British, The Fighting Irish, The Chosen Jews etc. They latch on to the White/Caucasian title the most because it is the one that benefits them the most. Just like Continental Africans/Black Diasporans do when being "regular Black" benefits them.
The meaning of words are meant to change hence "connotations" so AA has become an ethnic term especially over the last decade
Currently we have the official use of "African American" as an umbrella racial term then we have the creation of ambiguity by attempting to use "African American" as an ethnic term beneath the racial umbrella as well. Why? Because While that ethnic group does exist ...there is no official term for it.
Conclusion
(This ambiguity is reflected in academia as well)
This is similar to the whole "White Jamaican" thing. Short of the terms for sub groups like "maroons" and "rastas" there is no term for the total "ethnic body" of African peoples in Jamaica. As a result when people say "Jamaican" they assume "black people" but of course their are East Asian, Indian, etc. populations as well.
Predicted misunderstandings
Assumed question 1: So are you saying that the group who created american music, pushed for the civil rights all non white males enjoy, etc. is not considered their own ethnic group
Answer 1: No ...that's not what i'm saying
What I'm saying is that there was never any need to create a formal title for that group. Why? Because shy of immigrant hubs like NYC/Chicago/etc. there was never any need to distinguish between ethnic groups only "racial" groups. It's only been recently 1960s-70s that there has been a heavy influx of of various "African peoples" forming ethnic enclaves. Prior to this point people from the Caribbean, Africa, etc were "absorbed" fairly quickly.
Assumed question 2: Are you saying that the term "African American" is never used as an ethnic identifier
Answer 2: No ...that's not what i'm saying
The terms "African American" was meant to replace (colored, negro, black,etc) are racial designations. "African American" is a designation of race. With that said, when there is a need to differentiate ethnically between different "African peoples" in the U.S. people use it as an ethnic identifier ...(and I add)there by introducing semantic ambiguity. This country operates on racial designations before ethnic. The only ethnicity the census even tracks is Hispanic.
Assumed question 3: You do know there are numerous academic books/papers that speaks of "African Americans" as an ethnic group right
Answer 3: Yes ...See answer 2
This partly is what promotes that semantic ambiguity I mentioned. It's made even more conflicting because while sloppy ...it works ether way(Race or ethnicity) if i'm writing on the ethnic group it obviously works. If I'm writing on the racial group(in the U.S.) it still works. The sloppiness being that ethnic groups who have nothing to do with the event in question might get lumped in with the rest.
Assumed question 4: Why we gotta be called African Americans but white people don't have to be called European Americans
Answer 4: ! despise that fukk'n statement
We are called "African Americans" because we lobbied the press and government to be called "African Americans". If white folks want to do the same they are more than welcome.
How can/did I misinterpret my own thoughts on the above stated question?Not particularly feeling their politics, gave up on them awhile back
I'm going to assume your on that Yvette & Antonio tip...
That said, i'll answer your question outside the context of their politics.
In relation to the subjects of reparations and affirmative action, do I feel distinctions should be made upon dispersal? ...well , it depends.
That aside I already said that in relation to america giving away "a ridiculous amount in reparations" that any ol' body can pickup anytime.Unless your saying that the above was never a point of contention in the first place.
Though if that's your position the problem would then be that my thoughts weren't based in commentary around any coli based preconceived contentions. I was merely giving my 2cents on reparations & affirmative action(no more no less). 
NOTE:
The above stated, be clear that I'm not politically naive enough to not have reservations about cacs picking who they want to give money/influence to. Then claim "well see we gave yall [insert good here] so don't complain to us".
(Think Clarence Thomas on the supreme court)I'm more worried about cacs being able to pick and choose who and how those reparations are given out than anything. While not opposed to additional means, my "long game" position has always been to position ourselves in a way to tax the reparations out of Europeans via trade relations.(make them pay a surcharge)
Whatever do you mean...? We already put an African American on the supreme court???
Conclusion:
That way we are in control of the terms of the deal(which is my main concern)
...good looking out
That's how I feel. I hate all the terms they use for us. Black and white have meanings unto themselves. Inaccurate/non-factual racial group names aside, white represents pure, unsullied, clean, etc. while black represents unknown, scary, evil. But don't be offended by what these colors represent. Instead be offended that these people who have the audacity to call themselves white also have the nerve to call you black.
N!gger, negro, black... they're all offensive terms.
Then they try to call me an African American... Like everything is fair again. Had to throw that line in there.
The term African-American may seem to be a product of recent decades, exploding into common usage in the 1990s after a push from advocates like Jesse Jackson, and only enshrined in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2001.
The O.E.D.’s entry, revised in 2012, traces the first known occurrence to 1835, in an abolitionist newspaper. But now, a researcher has discovered a printed reference in an anti-British sermon from 1782 credited to an anonymous “African American,” pushing the origins of the term back to the earliest days of independence.
“We think of it as a neutral alternative to older terms, one that resembles Italian-American or Irish-American,” said Fred Shapiro, an associate director at the Yale Law School Library, who found the reference. “It’s a very striking usage to see back in 1782.”
One day, Mr. Shapiro typed “African American” into a database of historical newspapers. Up popped an advertisement that appeared in The Pennsylvania Journal on May 15, 1782, announcing: “Two Sermons, written by the African American; one on the Capture of Lord Cornwallis, to be SOLD.”
Black people in the Colonial period, whatever their legal status, were most commonly referred to as “Negro” or “African.”
Katherine C. Martin, the editor of United States dictionaries at Oxford University Press, said the O.E.D.’s researchers were in the process of confirming Mr. Shapiro’s discovery.
“It’s very exciting,” she said. “Once we have it nailed down, I would expect we’ll update our entry.”
The sermon, one of the earliest surviving ones by a black American, may also attract interest from historians.
In it, the speaker boasts about the capture of Cornwallis and decries the British assault on “the freedom of the free born sons of America” while nodding toward the fact of “my own complexion.”
“My beloved countrymen, if I may be permitted thus to call you, who am a descendant of the sable race,” one passage begins.
The speaker also addresses fellow “descendants of Africa” who feel loyalty to Britain, asking: “Tell me in plain and simple language, have ye not been disappointed? Have ye reaped what you labored for?”
The other sermon mentioned in the ad, Mr. Shapiro said, may be “A Sermon on the Present Situation of Affairs of America and Great-Britain,” which had been previously known to scholars. Both refer to “descendants of Africa,” he said, and have dedications invoking South Carolina, whose governor had been held in solitary confinement by the British for nearly a year.
But curiously, the title page of the other sermon attributes it to “a Black.”
“In other words, the bifurcation between the terms African-American and black, the two leading terms today, was present from the very beginning,” Mr. Shapiro said.
Asians make distinctions between ethnicity.....you mistake one of them for the wrong one and see if they don't correct you quick and In a hurry. "I'm Korean or Korean American, I'm Chinese American or Chinese". Some will be ready to fight lol. I understand that Black and African American can be synonymous in certain cases. But Black or Black Americans is usually the broader umbrella term. African American has historically been used to describe ethnicity.
Does anyone seriously argue that anyone but AAs should get reparations from Uncle Sam? I've never seen that personally.
Or is it a straw man some posters are running with
