If Colin Powells parents are Jamaican immigrants then Why is Mr. Powell referred to as African-American?

Answer 1

African American or Black is a race on the US Census.

Race

The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of categorizing humans into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of characteristics.[1] The most widely used human racial categories are based on visible traits (especially skin color, cranial or facial features and hair texture), and self-identification.[1][2]

Ethnicity

Often, ethnicity connotes shared cultural, linguistic, behavioral or religious traits. For example, to call oneself Jewish or Arab one immediately invokes a clutch of linguistic, religious, cultural and racial features that are held to be common within each ethnic category. In some cases, especially involving transnational migration, or colonial expansion, ethnicity is linked to nationality. The Jamaican ethnicity includes many races.

• Jamaican - mixture of African slaves, Central American natives and English settlers, Caribbean