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That attitude can be found even on the streets of Newark where the riots began. William Steele, who is black, said Booker had the right message: 'Cory Booker is just laying it out there. That what we need to do is just stand up. He is giving people a sense of responsibility that if you want some money, then you have to get out there and get a job. It does not matter if you are black or white.'
It is not as easy as that. The truth is far more complex than a flood of newspaper headlines greeting the premature dawn of a non-racial future.
It is certainly easy to find dissenting Newark voices, who believe the new black politicians are abandoning the real concerns of black people. Opposite the police station on which the memorial plaque now hangs, a large estate of new housing has been built. The area used to be a notorious 'project' but is now full of smart, tidy homes. To many that is a sign of progress, but not for Theresa Manning. She says Booker - and black politicians like him - have forgotten the poorest of the poor in her city in favour of embryonic gentrification.
'They knock down a project where we live and then build these new houses. But we can't afford to live in them,' she said 'They are trying to [push] us out of Newark. But where we gonna go?'
There is a fear that the declining influence of old-style black protest politics will mean the new black politicians will be able to ignore disadvantaged black communities or blame them for their own situation. But the fact is that black America is a very different world from the rest of the US.
On average, black American men live seven years less than other racial groups. They are five times more likely to die of Aids. More than three times as many blacks live in prison cells than live in university halls. Many experts fear that electing Obama - or other political leaders - on a 'non-racial' basis would allow these issues to be swept under the carpet. 'There is a sense that this might be the potential downside of the triumph of tokenism,' said Devin Fergus, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University.