I’m only half-joking. Ever since Jack Kerouac declared his wish to be black (in the late ’50s) and his feeling of inadequacy at never being able to achieve his goal, being “black” and being “cool” or “hip” have been equivalent in American culture.
While in the 1600s it was hip to be pale, because it indicated you didn’t work outdoors and thus must be an aristocrat, starting in the ’60s it was hip to darker, so tanning was suddenly “in”, and the fad has only been internalized culture-wide since then.
(Punk and Goth were a pushback, but that’s a different story).
***
Actually, Norman Mailer traced the phenomenon back to the 1920s.
PS: Adam Carolla’s archetypal 1970s California mom has a degree in “Chicano Studies.” She’s white.
UPDATE — “‘Indian Reservation’: A song from the 70s by an American rock band called Paul Revere & the Raiders, dressed as the British, about 19th century Cherokees oppressed by the Japanese.”
