The use of "black" in print never seems to cause much fuss from actual African-English (no idea about American) people. I know I'd let it pass, in appropriate contexts, at work.

(Though I've just discovered that the encyclopedia I'm updating has an article on Nelson Mandela which uses no words for race at all, carefully making nonsense of the whole thing. My over-fastidious predecessor at work again... time for a rewrite!)