I have heard many of my African-American professional female friends and colleagues express similar sentiments (as Michelle Obama) that reflect the very conflicted experience of being black and female in this country. I don't think many people understand the thousand little slights that occur both when you clean the offices and when you manage the offices as an African-American woman. Visceral, consuming pride in one's nation is borne out of an essential sense of belonging to and ownership of the communal American experience. That sense of belonging is never quite assured for many African-American women.