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<p>This may be some people’s usage, but the original question that opened this thread was about the federal regulations in the United States for self-identification of ethnicity and race on a college application. For that purpose, </p>
<p>[U.S</a>. Department of Education; Office of the Secretary; Final Guidance on Maintaining, Collecting, and Reporting Racial and Ethnic Data to the U.S. Department of Education [OS]](<a href=“http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.html]U.S”>http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.html) </p>
<p>[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm) </p>
<p>the federal regulations make “black” and “African-American” exact synonyms, so that the OP can designate that race, as can any black person in the United States, whether the descendant of many generations of American-born descendants of antebellum slaves or a first-generation immigrant from Africa who now has permanent residence in the United States.</p>