The First Family looks like my family...and there's nothing pseudo about that fabulousness!

On November 4, 2008, Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama accepted the Presidency of the United States of America. And, though the victory belonged to the country, there is a sense of pride that beams most brightly in the hearts of people of the diaspora. The next leader of the free world looks like us!

Throughout my lifetime, growing up Black in the United States of America, my parents have been on tireless searches to enable me to see that my Blackness was something to be proud of. I didn't grow up in the best neighborhood, but my parents always instilled in us a drive to aspire, even if no precedents were there to follow.

My mother wouldn't allow White Barbie dolls in her house, opting instead to purchase "Christine," Barbie's best friend who was Black. She wasn't a fan of seeing us sling towels over our heads to signify long, straight, flowing hair, and, she didn't bus us out of our neighborhood for "better education." Products of the civil rights movement, my parents knew the strides Blacks had made in this country and the progress we had yet to go.

Growing up, Claire Huxtable was every young girl's role model. She was gorgeous, had a family and was a lawyer. The only issue was that she was fictitious. She had been dreamt up as Bill Cosby's idea of what a Black woman role model should be. And though Felicia Rashaad was, and still is, a beautiful woman of class and grace, it was the fictional Claire Huxtable who served as role model.

But now, Claire Huxtable is in the White House. Her name is Michelle Obama. And she's real. An Ivy League educated attorney, she has two beautiful daughters who are well mannered and well rounded. She has stated her causes as women's rights and military families. She is not dumb, nor is she a trophy wife. She is the First Lady of a country who just gave her the right to vote about 40 years ago. A person who, 250 years to this day, would have come here in shackles on a slave ship.

This morning, Good Morning America claimed that the election of Barack Obama and his family to the White House is the "Return to Camelot," a world of Martha's Vineyard visits and attractive politicians that existed in the days of JFK and Jackie. And, though I loved Jackie's style and grace and find Michelle's style to be of a substance that will change fashion, I don't think of this as the return to Camelot.

I think of this as an introduction to a new day.