Last evening I sat down and quickly wrote this and posted it to Facebook. I’m sharing here to hopefully keep the discussion going….

As I mixed up one of the bags of poi I bought this morning, I was reminded that Honolulu Magazine shows its cultural biases each year with its “Sour Poi Awards,” which it described earlier this year as “Celebrating the Dumb, the Daft and the Deranged of 2016.” The last batch were published in January 2017, so the latest are likely due next month.

But why in the world would you use “sour poi” to symbolize something dumb or deranged? Surely there’s somebody over at Honolulu who recognizes that sour poi is a favorite sought out by lots of Hawaiians. Many, myself included, prefer to let poi sour before eating.

Putting down sour poi in this manner is really kind of an embarrassment for a magazine that seems to pride itself for a veneer of localness. It’s really an unintended slap down of things Hawaiian.

Hey, Honolulu. Let’s get past this and rename your awards. Don’t let it go on another year.