treating people equally is the respectful thing. Adding a hyphen to their being American seems more disrespectful in my opinion. In fact most black Americans have actually been in the states longer than whites, I think they deserve to be Americans by now.

*By the way, I know you're trying to be respectful and you don't mean anything by it. I just think its time we stop walking on egg sells regarding race. Honesty would be refreshing in my opinion.