It might be less confusing to call everyone American.

Let us start with the term African-American.

Many believe life started in Africa.* If this is so then everyone in the world is an African-American; not just ‘Black” Americans and not just Americans.

If I were an “African-American” a misnomer for sure, the implication is that my skin is ‘black’. Let us forget the idiocy of black skin or white skin. Whites have freckles, get enough you are black. Some Blacks get a skin disorder that turns their skin ‘white’.

I have known in my life racists who spend the summer suntanning to turn their skin dark.

If I were ‘Black” but I came from Haiti or the Caribbean, for instance, I am excluded from the African American appellation.

Hispanic means those who come from a Spanish speaking country.*

Latino means those who come from Latin America.

“For a certain segment of the Spanish-speaking population, Latino is a term of ethnic pride and Hispanic a label that borders on the offensive.” says the Dictionary.*

The one term is exclusionary, the other not. Must we wear armbands explaining which term is acceptable and which not?

Indian-American is not easy to use. You have to then specify if native or Indian from the country of India.

Catholic-American, Jewish-American, Mormon American.

History has shown that one has to fight to get past the ‘kind’ of American you are.

President Kennedy had to convince the electorate that he would not be led by the Pope in his decisions and presidential actions:

“But because I am a Catholic and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured - perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again - not what kind of church I believe in for that should be important only to me, but what kind of America I believe in.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be a Catholic) how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote - where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference - and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.” *

I could go on longer, for each of the {fill in the blank} - American.

I do not think it is necessary to address each separate group.

Because this is not a separate country - Indians live here, Blacks there, whites over there.

This is America and we who live here, no matter our background, creeds, or ethnicity are one simple thing.

We are Americans.

* “So far the evidence that we have in the world points to Africa as the Cradle of Humankind.”
George Abungu, Director-General of the National Museums of Kenya.

Most of the available scientific evidence suggests Africa was the continent in which human life began.

We can however never be absolutely sure. There is always the possibility of fossil discoveries being made in another part of the world, which could make us believe otherwise.

Listen to Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, on the contribution of the continent towards the development of humanity

It is in Africa that the oldest fossils of the early ancestors of humankind have been found, and it is the only continent that shows evidence of humans through the key stages of evolution.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section2.shtml

Usage Note: Though often used interchangeably in American English, Hispanic and Latino are not identical terms, and in certain contexts the choice between them can be significant. Hispanic, from the Latin word for “Spain,” has the broader reference, potentially encompassing all Spanish-speaking peoples in both hemispheres and emphasizing the common denominator of language among communities that sometimes have little else in common. Latino-which in Spanish means “Latin” but which as an English word is probably a shortening of the Spanish word latinoamericano-refers more exclusively to persons or communities of Latin American origin. Of the two, only Hispanic can be used in referring to Spain and its history and culture; a native of Spain residing in the United States is a Hispanic, not a Latino, and one cannot substitute Latino in the phrase the Hispanic influence on native Mexican cultures without garbling the meaning. In practice, however, this distinction is of little significance when referring to residents of the United States, most of whom are of Latin American origin and can theoretically be called by either word.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hispanic

* A more important distinction concerns the sociopolitical rift that has opened between Latino and Hispanic in American usage. For a certain segment of the Spanish-speaking population, Latino is a term of ethnic pride and Hispanic a label that borders on the offensive.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hispanic

* http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/66.htm