Black as a "identifier" is not used by Africans.
What do you share in common with someone from Congo? Tell me? You're both brown/darks kinned and from Africa?
So? A South Indian descendants in South Africa can be darker than you AND also be African technically.
In the West, we should use it to our political and economic advantage, that's it.
But i reject the concept that "White" created the "Black" identity.
You can say-- in general "Humans" put themselves in category to identify themselves. In Africa, every is "Black" so it will pointless to start categorizing who is pitch black or brown or light or using the diana creme.
Here in the west, the issue is different. Everybody is White. So naturally the few Blacks stick out. Like i call all asians -asians. ALL i need to look is how they look physically and boom i can conceive.
Its like lets say u go to your job driving a honda sedan. What if every body at work had a honda sedan in the parking lot? U will naturally start saying, oh mine is blue, or green or yellow.
Black is not a bad connotation. Although historically it has been. It denotes anything that is not pure, as in White.