SACRAMENTO — A public screening of the 1961 film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was canceled due to protests from the local Asian American community.

Sacramento Vice Mayor Steve Cohn had planned to show the film, which stars Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, as part of the city’s free Screen on the Green series on the evening of Aug. 23 at Glen Hall Park. Instead, the Disney/Pixar film “Ratatouille” was brought in as a last-minute replacement.

Unlike the other films in the August series — “Charlotte’s Web,” “Hairspray” and “Goonies” — “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” struck a nerve with Asian American community leaders because of Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi, the Japanese landlord of Holly Golightly, Hepburn’s character.

Christina Fa of Asian American Media Watch wrote in an Aug. 20 letter to Cohn, “Rooney, in buffoonish yellowface, conjures all the requisite ‘Jap’ stereotypes: grotesque buck teeth, thick-rimmed glasses, unforgivable ‘Asian’ accent. This is one of the worst offenders of anti-Asian media portrayals in history.”

She said that showing the film would be comparable to showing D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” (1915), which depicted the Ku Klux Klan in a heroic manner.

Nancy Ciraulo of One Village, a non-profit that helps families with young children, had written to Cohn to express concerns about the screening. Cohn said that he would give a disclaimer before showing the film.

At an Aug. 19 City Council meeting, Cohn acknowledged that Rooney’s scenes are offensive and apologized in advance to anyone who would be offended.

Ciraulo initiated an e-mail campaign to urge Cohn to substitute another film. The Council of Asian Pacific Islanders Together for Advocacy and Leadership (CAPITAL) joined in and sent letters to Mayor Heather Fargo and the City Council.

Comparison to Olympic Photo

Jerry Chong of CAPITAL referred to the incident in which members of Spain’s Olympic basketball and tennis teams pulled the outside corners of their eyes when posing for photos, apparently mimicking their Chinese hosts. Some later claimed that it was an “affectionate” gesture.

“It is so much horse manure as these gestures have been used universally to taunt, insult and dehumanize Asian for hundreds of years,” Chong wrote. “All Asian Americans have been subjected to these ‘respectful’ and ‘affectionate’ gestures, coupled with racial slurs and epithets, during our lifetime.

“This is not a question of Asians being overly sensitive or lacking a sense of humor. It is a question of people perpetuating and propagating offensive, derogatory and hateful racial stereotypes.”

Offer to Delete Scenes

In an Aug. 21 letter to Fa, Chong and others, Cohn said, “Because it had been so long ago since any of us on the Screen on the Green committee had seen the movie, we were unaware of this racist content.

“My first choice upon hearing of this issue this past week was to try to switch movies. Unfortunately, we were unable to do that since the film was already mailed out from the distribution company we contracted with in Illinois. We were planning to make a disclaimer at the opening of the film on Saturday ...

“Since then, Jerry Chong and I have discussed even a better solution, which is that we will delete the offensive scenes ... I will explain this issue to the audience at the beginning of the film, and hopefully it will be an educational opportunity to foster a better understanding with the audience of the need for cultural sensitivity and respect in our diverse, multiracial, multiethnic, and multi-cultural community.”

That solution turned out to be unsatisfactory to both sides. Fa said that editing out the scenes wasn’t the goal: “We had not originally called for censorship, just cancellation. People are free to see the film privately; it was just wildly inappropriate to show it as part of a city-sponsored event for families.”

Cohn found that taking out Rooney’s scenes would “screw up the movie entirely.”

‘Missed the Mark’

In a statement issued Aug. 22, Cohn said of Screen on the Green, “The intent was never to create controversy, to make political statements, or to be on the avant garde of the movie world, let alone to offend significant members of our community. Obviously, we missed the mark with our choice of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’

“In the end, we felt it was better to go with a movie that hopefully everyone can enjoy. In the future, I will work with our Screen on the Green committee to develop selection criteria that will help avoid controversy and get back to good, old-fashioned family fun in the park.”

Fa, who had unsuccessfully opposed a screening of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” at a similar public event in San Jose three years ago, said the decision by Cohn and his colleagues “resurrected their commitment to tolerance and diversity.”

Many of the reader comments posted on the Sacramento Bee’s website in response to an article about the controversy were negative, with some telling the protesters to “lighten up.”