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[Generalization mode on] I think that the major problem is that there is not really a lot to be "American" about. The US seems to be a country of loads of different people with not a single thing in common except their geographic location. However, most humans *do* need a sense of belonging to a tribe, so many Americans choose to identify themselves as -american (e.g. Irish-american, Dominican-american, etc.), and cultivate the associated beliefs and practices. This is very obvious once you're aware of it and you don't need to look any further than at the many Americans who boast a non-US flag in their profile to see evidence of such a state of affairs.[Generalization mode off]
Now, assuming that what I wrote above is taken as valid, then it's quite understandable that blacks in the US would want to call themselves African-americans. First of all, they have the same need as anybody else to belong to a tribe, and secondly, there's not any other words/tribe they can use: The nations in Africa are so young that it doesn't make sense to call ancestors of slaves taken in the area now known as Ghana for Ghanesian-americans, and furthermore, most blacks cannot trace back their origins as at some point their pedigree will end with people considered a goods.
So when someone call themselves an African-american, it doesn't mean that they consider themselves more sympathetic to Africans than you or I, but simply that they associate themselves with a specific tribe. Hence, there's no need to get agitated at that.
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