Classic Bond film from 50 years ago a perfect depiction of a racist Democrat

The Man with the Golden Gun happens to be one of my all-time favorite James Bond Pictures. 

Sir Roger Moore was in outstanding form as Bond.  The script gave Moore an opportunity to depict the darker, meaner, ruthless, and somewhat nasty side of Bond. 

Christopher Lee was magnificent as the maniacal assassin Francisco Scaramanga.  Bond and Scaramanga are almost reflections of each other in drive, skill, and talent; what separates them is Bond’s sense of morality and patriotism.  The Nietzschean theme prevails all through the picture and makes for compelling viewing.

Also quite striking are the stunning Swedish leading ladies, Maud Adams, who plays Scaramanga’s abused mistress, and Britt Ekland, who play Bond’s hapless assistant in Thailand.

Hervé Villechaize plays Nick Nack, Scaramanga’s little person manservant and conniving accomplice, who may be resentful of Scaramanga and want him out of the way. 

I have watched this film multiple times, and it is fascinating how one manages to pick up striking details with each viewing that one surprisingly missed initially.

The focus here is on Sheriff J.W. Pepper, played by the very funny and amiable Clifton James.

The character, whose function was to provide comic relief, debuted in Sir Roger’s debut Bond film, Live and Let Die (1973).

Pepper works for the Louisiana State Police.  He is loud, brash, and garrulous and perpetually chewing and spitting out what appears to be tobacco.  He fits the trope of the ineffectual policeman and has been used in a few other Bond films as well.

The popularity of the character caused him to be brought back in the subsequent Bond film, The Man With the Golden Gun (1974).

YouTube screen grab.

This time, Pepper is vacationing with his wife in Bangkok.  During one of the car chases where he is accompanying Bond, an exasperated Pepper refers to the local Thai people in Bangkok as “little brown pointy heads.”

In Live and Let Die, Pepper refers to a black character in the film as “boy,” which some have claimed was proof that he is racist.  The character was meant to be seen as somewhat bigoted or prejudiced, with those qualities linked to his ineptitude.  While arresting a black person, he remarks, “This ain’t exactly your debut at this sort of thing.”

A key revelation occurs during a scene when Pepper’s wife is about to buy an artifact of an elephant from a local Thai vendor.  Pepper remarks, “Elephants!  We’re Democrats” as he spits on the floor.

Yes, Pepper, who can be seen as somewhat bigoted, is a Democrat.  I searched across the forums to learn about fans’ reactions to this revelation.  Many seemed surprised at the revelations.  Some even presumed that he was being ironic or sarcastic.

We cannot exactly blame people for being surprised, because the media machinery for the past few decades has been pushing this narrative that it is Republicans who are the racists while Democrats are the only hope for non-white people.

Yes, the character is a caricature, but caricatures are often based in fact.  In this particular case, the depiction is historically accurate.  Since the day it was founded in 1829, the Democrat party has fought every major civil rights initiative and has a long history of discrimination.  The Democrats defended slavery, which caused the Civil War; they founded the Ku Klux Klan, imposed segregation, perpetrated lynching, and fought the civil rights acts of the 1960s.  The Democrats were the party of slavery, Jim Crow, and that miserable terrorist excrescence the Ku Klux Klan. 

The Democrats were a perfect example of systemic racism.

The Republicans were the party of Abe Lincoln; Reconstruction; anti-lynching laws; and the civil rights acts of 1875, 1957, 1960, and 1964.  But these facts continue to remain secrets because of the media and because the GOP has done a very poor job in countering spurious Democrat narratives.

The Democrats haven’t changed much.

They may say what appears to be the right thing — appearing to be proponents of inclusivity, equity, and diversity.  But this diversity is superficial.  The non-white people are needed only for photo ops and publicity campaigns.  But when you dig deeper, you notice that they have very little respect for non-white people. 

Whenever a non-white person dares to challenge the Democrat groupthink, he becomes the recipient of the most vile and bigoted attacks.  The treatment meted out to black Republicans such as Hershel Walker, Larry Elder, Candace Owens, Herman Cain, etc. is proof of that.

If you look at the situation of non-white people in states run by Democrats, it becomes amply clear what their goal is.  The black community is facing a crisis, with poverty, crime, bad schools, and a breakdown in family structure.

For the Democrats, this is ideal; it gives them their permanent underclass voter base, who rely on them for welfare, to whom they can turn around and say, “You want more freebies?  Vote for us.”

Their P.R. wing that masquerades as the media has pushed the Democrat-savior and Republican-bigot narrative to such an extent that even when they see no improvement in their lives and misgovernance by Democrats, the dominant share of black people continue to vote for Democrats.  The Democrats have convinced a significant number of black people that if they do not vote Democrat, they are being disloyal to their race and siding with the enemy.  This could be seen as a form of mental slavery.

Back to The Man with the Golden Gun and Sheriff J.W. Pepper: It is quite amazing that the film revealed the character to be a Democrat.  It isn’t clear how much thought screenwriters Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz put in while making this revelation.  It will be interesting to see if this is muted when screened on TV.

If such a character were to be depicted in today’s era, they would never, ever reveal him to be a Democrat, no matter what time the movie is set in.  They would happily place a MAGA hat on his head and amplify the bigotry to the hilt.

This is another reason to like The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).