“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is also scheduled to be shown on August 11th at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy as part of SyFy’s Movies With A View. We say scheduled to be shown because an online petition is calling for the screening to be cancelled due to a character played by Mickey Rooney that Asian American groups find offensive. Rooney was hired to play an over-the-top Asian man and he did.
Watch this commercial for Jello from the 1960s:
Is that offensive and racist?
Or, how about this scene from an episode of “The Flinstones?”
The debate over “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” or any work made in a time when racism or stereotyping was acceptable entertainment is an interesting one. Earlier this year, scholars went back and forth over the newest editions of Mark Twain’s 1884 “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” removing the “N” word and “Injun.”
New York Post writer Lou Lumenick offered some clarity on the topic:
I personally think the screening should go forward, but the film’s outdated racial attitudes need to be acknowledged and discussed in an introduction.
Lumenick’s idea is one that works to preserve the historical integrity of the film, while recognizing the offensive stereotyping.
Let's all take a deep breath and sing along with the Broadway show “Avenue Q” song “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist.”
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