Raven Symones "I'm an American" comment

Today i watched an interview with Raven Symone on Oprah's "Where are they now?" Show. During the interview Raven said that she did not wish to be labelled, and stated "I'm an American, I'm not an African-American". And i thought finally! Although I am a white British woman I have always found the term African-American mind boggling and offensive. Why does a black American who has been raised in America like their parents and grandparents before them, have to put African infront of their nationality?! I couldn't imagine calling someone African-British. I completly agree with Raven and am glad she spoke out about how this label makes her feel. What shocked me was the first "African-American" billionaires reaction. Oprah's first thought was twitter being on fire with disgrace and then asked intently to explain what Raven means exactly by saying she does not consider herself African as well as American. For someone I looked at as an inspirational woman who empowers others I quickly became aware of how uncomfortable she was in the presence of a young woman having the courage to say she is not defined by the colour of her skin. I wish that when Raven had said that brave, empowering and inspiring statement she had been given a positive response from her interviewer, instead of being told by the most famous black woman in the world that she's going to get a lot of stick for saying that accompanied with quite a pissed off look.  Surely being defined simply by your skin colour is racist, and I believe Raven was only saying why am i being referred to as an American originally from a different country based on my skin colour? She is a true role model and i applaude her for speaking out.