There is no need in today's vernacular to use either. If you don't like African American, which I personally find stupid, you can say black.
I'm frequently reminded of a negro sit-com I saw from back in the 70's or early '80's.
I don't remember if it was The Jeffersons or Good Times or one of the other negro oriented sit-coms of the time.
The kid, who was the son of the main star, and his friends were forming a club or something and were fighting over what they would call (identify) themselves as.
The plot of the episode centered around the argument, which got quite uppity at times.
At the end of the show, some teacher or the dad brought in some man who had some prominence (for real) in the Civil Rights era.
He was brought in to set these boys straight.
He explained to the boys about what he fought for back in the day and the struggles, hardships and the like that he had to go through.
He went on to say (and I'm paraphrasing here)...
"You all are fighting and killing yourselves about whether you want to be called black or african-American."
"I fought for the right, and many of my friends were hurt, and even some died, to just be called NEGRO."
There was then a strong and long round of applause from the studio audience.
