Maeve McDermott

USATODAY

Days before making headlines by meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, Steve Harvey was drawing criticism for a different reason, targeting Asian men in a string of racist jokes on The Steve Harvey Show.

On Tuesday morning, the Family Feud host offered his "humblest apology for offending anyone, particularly those in the Asian community" in a message on Twitter.

"It was not my intention and the humor was not meant with any malice or disrespect whatsoever," the text post wrote.

On the Jan. 6 episode of his show, Harvey mocked a 2002 book titled How to Date a White Woman: A Practical Guide for Asian Men, saying the book should only have a single page, "'Excuse me, do you like Asian men?' No, thank you."

"I don’t even like Chinese food, boy. It don’t stay with you no time," he continued in a mock-female voice. "I don’t eat what I can’t pronounce.”

In response to Harvey's comments, the Asian-American restaurateur and Fresh Off The Boat author Eddie Huang wrote an op-ed for The New York Times, blasting Harvey for perpetuating "upsetting" stereotypes against Asian men.

"Every Asian-American man knows what the dominant culture has to say about us," he wrote. "We count good, we bow well, we are technologically proficient, we’re naturally subordinate, our male anatomy is the size of a thumb drive and we could never in a thousand millenniums be a threat to steal your girl."

"(Harvey) speaks openly about issues facing the black community, he is a man of God, and he has a huge platform to speak from," Huang continued. "For his own personal profit, he’s willing to perpetuate the emasculation of Asian men regardless of how hypocritical it is."

TV host Steve Harvey explains his meeting with Donald Trump

On Jan. 13, Harvey visited Trump Tower for a meeting with the President-elect. “They're kind of beating me up on the Internet right now for no reason, but that's life, isn’t it?" he told reporters after his meeting about the blowback from his comments.

Harvey explained his meeting with Trump in a tweeted statement. "Our president (Obama) asked that all of us sit down and talk to one another in order to move our country forward," he wrote. "The transition teams on both sides asked me to meet and I'm glad I did."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.