Augie Tulba (aka Augie T) is a Hawaii-based comedian who was recently elected to the Honolulu City Council.
In recent years, he has toned down his act, noting that some of his past comedy has been offensive.
After all, most of us have matured over the years.
However, this past week, his social media manager posted an old clip of Augie T's comedy skit in which he was in blackface and playing a judge in a drag queen contest.
The comedy skit was seen as racially offensive and homophobic.
Augie T, who is of Filipino & Puerto Rican ancestries, has an openly gay son whom he remains close to.
Until recently, I don't think most people in Hawaii knew that painting oneself black is considered offensive to many African-Americans. Yes, we were taught in school about the civil rights movement. Most of us know that the N-word is offensive (though many wannabe gangstas of non-African-ancestries say it because they want to be 2pac or 50 Cent)! But most of us weren't taught about "blackface" and its history & controversy. The issue, while commonly discussed in activist & academic spaces, wasn't really talked about in the US mainstream media until only a few years ago.
When local media outlets in Hawaii report on these kinds of controversy, not only do we have people complaining about "political correctness", some local people claim that is "only mainland people" who complain about local ethnic humor, but they forget some important facts.
All the comedians they listed (Augie T, Frank DeLima, Andy Bumatai, Mel Cabang, the 98.5 Wake Up Crew, etc) ARE ALL OLDER THAN ME! And i'm 40 years old! I'm middle-aged!
I don't know a single popular local comedian that is younger than me that specializes in ethnic humor!
What does that tell you? It tells me it is not about "local vs outsider", it's more of a generation thing! The Wake-Up Crew style of humor is no longer popular in Hawaii like it used to be!
The younger generation don't even get involved with it! Times have changed! Hawaii has moved on!
This is not to claim "racism is over in Hawaii". When I was working at a public middle school, I reported to school admin about 2 staff members of Asian ancestries who made negative comments about Micronesians. And there are much more of those deplorable comments on social media.
But the fact remains that ethnic humor is no longer as popular in Hawaii as it was a few decades ago.
I can name you prominent local musicians who are younger than me (ie Bruno Mars, Raiatea Helm, Josh Tatofi). I can name you local athletes who made it to the pros who are younger than me (ie Marcus Mariota, Tua Tagovailoa). I can even name you local politicians who are younger than me (ie Jeanné Kapela, Adrian Tam).
But I can't even name one local comedian who specializes in ethnic humor that is younger than me.
So don't give me this crap about "it's only the people from the mainland who complain about local ethnic humor".
The younger local people may not engage in battle with those trolls, they're just interested in that type of humor, and the fact is that not one has risen up to take the place of older local comedians who specialize in ethnic humor. That shows you the interest is just not there anymore.
The old defenders of local ethnic humor claim that their generation was less sensitive and more thick-skinned. But what they don't realize is that many of their generation PRETENDED they weren't offended because they didn't want to get the abuse of "ha ha you can't take a joke! The younger generation is not afraid to openly cringe at such jokes! Plus I know many older folks who once openly laughed at such jokes but realize how wrong it was. That's NOT "becoming a snowflake", that's becoming mature!
It is the trolls who claim that "it's only the people from the mainland who complain about local ethnic humor" that are truly out of touch with modern Hawaii.
