African who? African what?

Anyone who really knows me knows I am a major history buff. Any given Wednesday, rest assured I'm watching "The Naked Archaeologist" or some documentary on IFC or HBO. Being an American, I would like to think that I live in a prosperous, thriving and progressive country. I saw a documentary yesterday that made me embarrassed to call myself an American (again). Granted, every country makes mistakes but once you realize it's a mistake, you'd think measures would be taken to avoid the same mistake again, right? Apparently not.
In the U.S., anyone born here knows all about the slave trade and what it did to indigenous Africans. Unlike other cultures that migrated to the U.S., there are millions of Americans with African ancestry that can not and will not ever know exactly what part of African, what tribe or people we have descended from. In my opinion, "African-American" has become a blanket, "catch-all" label for anyone brown-skinned with wavy or kinky hair. If I were African, Haitian, Jamaican, Cuban, etc...I might take offense to that label being thrust upon me, solely because I "look" a certain way. Let me just say, "looks" can be deceiving. My neighbor was born in Nigeria and I (of course) in the U.S. If you placed us side by side and just looked at us, you would never know. My neighbor would automatically get labeled, "African-American", however, if asked she states, "I am Nigerian." I some how feel a bit stupid when faced with an actual African and then calling myself African-American, when I have no idea what part of Africa my lineage comes from. I remember explaining to a Nigerian, we call ourselves African-American because we know (or were TOLD)we are African descendants, but don't know from what part of African we've descended from. The Nigerian's response was, "How sad.". Indeed...how sad.
I took a cultural diversity course one year. As I walked in the class, right away, I was the brownest person in the room. Our instructor asked us to divide ourselves up in our closest cultures. Because there were more European-descendants in the room, she then asked them to divide themselves up by what region of the US they came from. Me...not even thinking, joined one of the regional groups. Why? Because I saw no one like me in the room. The instructor then quietly came over and asked me to represent the African-American culture in the room. How did she know I was African-American? Did I "look" the part? Although I hated being the "representative" for all African-Americans that day, I decided I would enlighten the class a bit. I had to write down 10 things about my culture that people may not know. I can't recall all that I had written. I only remember the one thing I said that got the most reactions and that was, "Not all brown people are of African descent." I heard the gasps of surprise and thought, "Gotcha!". I went on to explain, in very early census records, the census takers were very adamant that if you were not white or mulatto, you were negro. So, you could have been Mexican...but you were listed as "Negro". You could have been Native American...but you were listed as "Negro". You could have been Cuban...but you were listed as "Negro". Through the course of time, it was then assumed, if you had any (what was called then)"Negro" characteristics (e.g. dark skin, wide nose, kinky hair), you were captured in the census as "Negro" or "Black".
As I began to search through my own genealogy, I found I am of more Irish and English descent than I am African. And despite that I have genuine green eyes, tan skin and brown hair with natural auburn hues, I am labeled that which I "look" the most like. I do think this labeling fiasco tends to happen in regions of the U.S. as well as the world that are not as culturally diverse.
As I've travelled, I noticed several things:
-In Mexico, I stuck out like a sore thumb and the natives were extremely fascinated by my green eyes.
-In Puerto Rico, I melted right in!
-In Orlando,Florida, I was mistaken for Cuban.
-In Vienna, Austria, certain ethnic minorities (e.g. Egyptians, Italians) seemed scarily enamored with me. (I loved the attention but after about a week, it got creepy.) The Viennese just stared at me and anyone that I saw that was darker than myself, seemed to run from me. lol
-In Cincinnati, OH - I was stared or glared at...by the Black folks! (What's up with that?)
-In Seattle and California in general - $$ talked, color didn't...and I did notice how very "fit" everyone was there.
My point is this, can't I be who I want to be and not what people assume I am because of how I "look"? So what if the Irish/English side is 3 generations back?!? People still cling to the culture or name of the generation that immigrated to the U.S...except for "African-Americans". We lost our names long ago. The names we now have are adopted from cities, slave masters or just names we liked and claimed as our own. How sad.