Michael Savage is one of talk radio's most popular hosts with an estimated 10 million listeners tuning in to his syndicated show every week. On Monday Savage spent several minutes talking about Hawaii, a clip that has struck a nerve in some.
"Hanohano wale o Hanalei. Welcome back to the Savage Nation."
The Michael Savage Show is syndicated in over 300 markets including Hawaii.
"I loved Hawaii I lived there many many years, it's an interesting all syllables. But you don't know about that are they going to be independent very soon. I don't know how they're going to make a living, they're going to kick the white man out then what they going to have cannibalism again, oops sorry," said Savage during Monday's show.
"My only annoyance with the Savage clip was the stupidity," said Puakea Nogelmeier, an Associate Professor of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaii where he has taught for 25 years. "His understanding of history is so poor that he thinks Hawaiians were cannibals or the whole history was always race based we need to present better histories."
"Beautiful culture up to a point," said Savage.
"We've never kicked anybody off of our 'aina, never. And to claim that we're cannibals that is just atrocious," said Vicky Holt Takamine of the Ilioulaokalani Coalition.
Savage spent several years here, earning his masters in anthropology and botany at the University of Hawaii.
"I might have to question he was educated here, he went through school here, he obviously didn't learn a lot about here," said Nogelmeier.
He is known for pushing the envelope.
"Ua ola ao! Now I'm starting to sound like a hemorrhoid with eyes."
Some say he pushed it too far.
"Bastardization of our Hawaiian language let alone English you know syllables, he never learned much from the University of Hawaii when he was here," said Holt Takamine. "I think that we as native Hawaiian people are alarmed that this kind of mentality still exists in today's world."
"Ua ola ao!"
"There's a lot of stupid in that little clip, there's really a lot to work with," said Nogelmeier. "Really my motto is don't engage with stupid you can't fix it."
KHBZ officials say they have not received complaints.
