"Black" is superior to "African-American" on every level. It's one syllable versus seven, so on a linguistic basis it kicks booty. Also, how can you call Colin Powell, to pick an example, "African-American"? The guy's parents are from the Caribbean, not Africa. And what about black people from South America?

But the stake through the heart of "African-American," for this lemur, is the seven syllables when there's a perfectly good alternative that has but one syllable.