Political Correctness?

[morlockiness.livejournal.com]

In my novel there are Asian and black people. I am conflicted when writing about them, especially the black characters. I know it's politically correct and all to call them African Americans, and while using that would help my word count, it sounds forced and awkward to me because calling them black is just as acceptable where I live, but I don't want to be offensive in my book. I also, for my Asian character, called her oriental once and was wondering if that would seem offensive as well.

Help?