they say "African-American": they mean "black person who lives in the USA".
Only in the USA can one think that the term "African-American" is politically
correct. My friend Gerard, a white man from South Africa who relocated to
Pennsylvania, is an African-American. My friend Hassan, a Moroccan who
relocated to California, is an African-American. The white Zimbabwean
businessman whom i met in Argentina and the black Angolan student whom i met in
Brazil are African-Americans. But that is not what USA citizens mean when
they say "African-American": they mean "black person who lives in the USA".
In fact they call "African-American" even people from Haiti, Britain and
France, as long as their skin is black.
Most USA citizens (particularly the self-appointed African-American ones)
think of Africa as being only sub-Saharan Africa, and of America as being
only the USA. And they do not consider white people born in Africa as "African".
In other words, when they say "African" they really mean "person with a black
skin", and when they say "American" they really mean "USA citizen".