I've never witnessed or heard about anyone being offended by being called black. I think it's the most appropriate term considering not all black people are of african descent.

As far as I know brown/black/white are okay, it's just yellow/red that are offensive terms.

Who are these brown people that you speak of? Hispanics? Are they cool with "brown"?

idk who he is referring to with brown but desi refer to themselves as brown.

Also to answer the OP just ask the person you are talking to instead of just trying to lump the whole group together. Some people will be okay with it while others won't and they will let you know why.

"Desi"?

I always find he, she, that guy/girl etc. works best. Better still, use the persons name if you know it.

People from India and surrounding areas

As opposed to what, "Hey, you! Blackie! Yeah, you!"?

I have no problem with it. As a black man, I am proud of being a black man. But I could understand some blacks with this. Usually black is reference to American slaves. Meaning Africans who don't know their heritage. Some people use black as all African descendant of blacks were slave descendant.

Yes this.

I actually have a related question for everyone. I have noticed overtime that many people describe friends in stories by their race if they aren't the same.

For instance, my friend will be telling a story like "I was with "so and so" my BLACK friend" and then continue the story, but if it was some white guy they are talking about it's "I was with my friend "so and so"".

This is not just white people I have black/spanish friends that do it too.

Anyway, I brought this up to someone one day and I was saying how I never do it and found it to be mildly racist even if it wasn't truly/purposefully offensive. I think mentioning it is appropriate if their race is relative to the story but other than that why do we feel the need to emphasize such things?

Sub-conscious racism? I kinda think so.

No, I don't think so. Because there is a larger white population, it is assumed that you are referring to a white when you say "my friend". If you were in an area where the majority of people were black, you would use white in the same context.