The White Negro (essay)

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"The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster" is an essay by Norman Mailer recording the wave of young white people in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s who were so enamored of jazz and swing music that they adopted the black culture as their own.

They would enshroud themselves in black clothing styles, black jive language, and black music. They would associate mainly with black people, distancing themselves from white society. One of the early characters of the white negro movement was Mezz Mezzrow, who was born Jewish-American in 1899 and had declared himself to be a "voluntary negro" by the 1920s. This movement gave rise to the hipster of the 1940s, the beats of the 1950s, the hippie of the 1960s and 70's, and the wigger of later decades.

The essay was originally published in Dissent in 1956, and then was reprinted in Advertisements for Myself in 1959.