Hi Blackbird!
First and foremost, thank you for the clarification.
On the topic of you: I know absolutely nothing about Lebanon, so I wouldn’t dare even suggest what you should call yourself. (Hell, I realized I was not very effective just trying to talk to a former biracial friend about racial identity.)
On the topic of African-Americans: In response to your comment about black folks (and I use the term “black” as a general term meaning people of African descent from the U.K., U.S., etc.), “black” seemed to be the safest term for all of us. And yes, I’ve never heard anyone from the U.K. call themselves anything but “European” or “British” from the very few penpals and exchange students I met growing up. I still understand the argument that African-born people have about the term “African-Americans” considering it’s arguably more accurate for them than Black Americans. But I 100% understand why Black Americans use “African-American” to point out where we were born wasn’t much of a choice, considering the Middle Passage and all.
On the topic of Latinos: My high school and college friends and work friends just flat-out said “Mexican.” They all were Mexican Americans. I had one brief high school friend from Guatemala, but I don’t recall how he identified himself. Only the Dominican guy (mentioned here) told me to call him “Latino” if I didn’t just say “Dominican.” But again, this takes me back to this comment. I will refer to people however they are most comfortable. I don’t lose any sleep at all if someone wants to be called “Hispanic/Chicano/LatinX/Latino” so my general rule of thumb is, “You like it? Me too!”
On the topic of me: I, personally, respond to African-American as quickly as I’ll respond to Black. I do scowl at someone just referring to me as “American” though because it’s wiping an extremely important part of my identity. For me, it’s like someone calling me a “human being” because they don’t want to refer to me as a “woman.” I am extremely proud of being a black woman. Don’t take that description from me. But for the guy I mentioned who was biracial and did not know both sides of his racial makeup, I struggled and finally kinda sorta understood where he was coming from. I didn’t agree with it, but I understood it.
