The essay is a call to abandon Eisenhower liberalism and a numbing culture of conformity and psychoanalysis in favour of the rebellious, personal violence and emancipating sexuality that Mailer associates with marginalized black culture. "The White Negro" was first published in the 1957 special issue of "Dissent", before being published separately by City Lights. Mailer's essay was controversial upon its release, winning praise, for example, from Eldridge Cleaver and equal criticism from James Baldwin. The work remains his most famous and most reprinted essay and it established Mailer's reputation as a "philosopher of hip".