Skin color

Black vs. African American; Skin color vs. A person
Many times in my life I have been faced with terminology struggles. First of all because English is not my native language, and second of all because accepted racial language and terminology is constantly changing.
When I first came to the United States around 10 years ago, there was a big move around the issue of how people of color and different minority groups prefer to be called. I remember learning in High School and College that Blacks should be called “African American” and that Indians should be called “Native Americans” or “ The First People”. Never before in my life had I been aware that people might get offended by the way others refer to them. I never had to deal with issues like that prior to coming to the USA. In Bulgaria ( Eastern Europe) I don’t remember even thinking about how important language is. I am glad that my coming to the USA, education and life experiences have taught me how to be mindful and respectful to people’s cultures and backgrounds.
Recently, I had a conversation with one of my friends that happens to be “African American“. He told me that every time he hears somebody referring to him as “African American”, he gets offended because he doesn’t consider himself to be African; he was born in the USA, and he feels like he doesn’t belong to the African culture. He told me that he is Black and that he wants others to refer to him as such. When he said that my I started to wonder and I thought about college and High School and all of the people who do use the term “African American” with the intension of being polite and respectful. I wondered if there really is a way to be respectful based only on language, or if it is really deeper than that. I believe that we as Americans should understand that how we refer to the color of our skin is not the most important issue; what really matters is how we treat each other based on who we really are beyond the color of our skin.