Call black people black, white people white and be done with it. Calling somebody African American is, in my opinion, a ridiculous racial identifier. It would be like me identifying myself as European-Canadian, which is pretty dumb considering I was born in Canada, Europe is a diverse place that has more than just white people, and it sounds like some kind of unnecessary attempt at political correctness. 

Let's also add the fact that not all Africans are black. You don't call Egyptian/ Syrian/ Libyan/ Algerian/ Moroccan people African Americans, and they've been there since ancient freaking times. Even South Africa has a huge white population. You'd call one of them, provided they moved to America, white, not African-American.

I can see why she is tired of the label. I would be, too.