It's a New York Times best-selling book tagged under humor.

But not a lot of Filipinos found "The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl" funny after writer Issa Rae, star and creator of the hit HBO series "Insecure," described them as the "blacks of Asians," implying that they're not as hardworking or intelligent as other Asian men.

• READ: HBO series creator Issa Rae draws flak for calling Pinoy men the ‘blacks of Asians’

Among those who were not amused by the particular excerpt (from a book that is 3 years old) was actor Enchong Dee, who dissed Rae by saying that he thought "humanity is getting better" until he read what she wrote.

"A famous black woman says not to date Filipino men because they're the 'Blacks of Asians.' Welcome to 2018, everyone," he said in sharing an article on the topic on Instagram Stories this week.

The line in question can be found inside the book's chapter about why successful black women and Asian men should date each other. This was Rae's tongue-in-cheek solution to her observation that both groups, at the time she wrote it, have a bad reputation when it comes to dating.

On Issa Rae.

Because context matters. And because I read her book. And because I taught her book.

The first pic is the intro to the book, which I’ll come back to. 2-4 are the whole section that’s been shared. pic.twitter.com/jffPNI5L1W

— Fierce & Feminine (@DrRondreaMathis) April 30, 2018

It has incited discussion among many, including those spearheaded by Teresa Jusino from the feminist "geek culture" website The Mary Sue, who argued that the joke about Filipinos being the "blacks of Asians" was done in poor taste.

She told Rae that "you don't get to take liberties with self-deprecating humor about any group other than your own."

Her article titled, "Yes, We Need to Trot Out This Old Issa Rae Book Excerpt," then prompted a reply from writer Udochi Okeke, who defended Rae in a column posted on Medium.

Okeke explained that the outrage over the joke stemmed from the personal bias readers have against black people, born from the "racial stereotype and media narrative" that they are lazy and uneducated.