Steve Harvey’s Racist Jokes Trigger Backlash

On Friday, Steve Harvey got into hot water after he made some race-related jokes, and in the days since, a backlash has brewed online. It all started when Steve opened his show poking fun at embarrassing dating guides like Dating for Under a Dollar and How to Date a White Woman: A Practical Guide for Asian Men.

Steve joked about the datability of Asian men, imitating a woman simply stating that she’s not interested. Among other comments, his “drunk uncle at Thanksgiving” impression immediately became superawkward, despite the audience who seemed willing to laugh at anything. When he realized the first person the producers put the spotlight on for the “Ask Steve” segment was a woman from the Philippines, Steve’s face fell. He actually got off the hook pretty easy, though. She would have been justified in taking him to task for hacky jokes stolen from the ’50s, but she only told him to eat 12 grapes, not to cut his nails, and to wear polka dots in honor of Philippine traditions.

The Internet, ever the reliable generator of outraged think pieces, picked up the slack. Feel free to guess the tone of the resulting story on the Angry Asian Man blog. And if you go to Twitter and type “Steve Harvey” into the search bar, one of the top results right now is “Steve Harvey potato asian men,” in which one person criticized Steve Harvey, comparing his look to that of Mr. Potato Head, and posted his photo alongside those of Asian male models.

What do you think about this case of Steve Harvey putting his foot in his mustache?

Watch Steve Harvey talk about why he changed his look:

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