Is J.W. Pepper a racist like some fans say?

Some fans say he is cause of how he treats the Thai people, but I think he just doesn't like poor or indigent people, thinking of them as inconveniencing, or not smart enough to figure out how to get jobs that can make more money.

So I feel that he is not a racist, just against indigent, unless I am wrong?

From the 'James Bond allies' Wikipedia page -

'Sheriff John Wayne Pepper is a parish sheriff in Louisiana. He appears in the films Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. Played by Clifton James, he is mostly used as comic relief, especially and memorably for his somewhat bigoted attitudes and his tendency to speak loudly about whatever is on his mind.'

As you can see, this mentions his 'bigoted attitudes'. Although I think it balances out because the character is clearly a buffoon whose attitudes are not to be taken as 'gospel'.

He mentions that he's a Democrat, so I assume so.

The character as he is written was definitely meant to be perceived as somewhat bigoted/prejudiced.

CJB wrote:

He mentions that he's a Democrat, so I assume so.

The Southern Democrats clung to the old values when their party shifted left, at a time when the Republicans shifted right and no longer represented their original values. There was a lot of ship-jumping and mid-stream horse-changing going on at that time.

This is something Republican supporters like to bring up (partially): they remind us that it was the Democrats who supported slavery, and that Lincoln was the Republican who abolished it. This was, of course, before the ideological shift occurred (they tend to leave out this last part).

The parties have changed so many times that they generally reference little of the past even though it essentially came out of the original debate between Federalists and confusingly titled Democratic-Republicans.

As for ol' J.W. the racism is inherent and meant to provide a colorful backdrop to poke fun at such a character and his sheer ability to withstand the madness that surrounds him. If you were to look at the statements without context it could sound offensive. However it is within the context of a local sheriff who thinks he is much greater, grander and wiser than he actually is. A poor fool who is thusly shown just how out of his depth he can be by these growing number of destruction filled situations.

As ironpony said above, I've always felt his lines in TMWTGG dealt more along the lines of commenting on other styles of life he deemed irresponsible than racist and that the worst bits merely sound like the uncouth foreigner who doesn't comprehend a culture outside his own small town.


That said, wouldn't it be great to have a horn that blared : "EVER THINK ABOUT GETTING A DRIVER'S LICENCE BOY?" at reckless drivers?

hegottheboot wrote:

That said, wouldn't it be great to have a horn that blared : "EVER THINK ABOUT GETTING A DRIVER'S LICENCE BOY?" at reckless drivers?

Or "Get that chicken coop/piece of junk offa the road!"

hegottheboot wrote:

"EVER THINK ABOUT GETTING A DRIVER'S LICENCE BOY?" at reckless drivers?

I quote that on a regular basis to slow drivers.

I think my most quoted Pepper bit has to be: "By tha power EENvested EEn Me by the Louisiana State Police I do Hereby Commandeer this vehicle and all those occupants within. SPITS. And that means you smart ass..."

Not to be pedantic, Boots, but Pepper invoked the powers invested in him "by this parish" while commandeering a State police vee-hickle "and all those persons within". It was in TMWTGG that he declared himself a sheriff in the "Loo-weezianna state po-lice".

Question is, was that move a promotion or demotion, as another poster long ago pointed out that state police don't have sheriffs?

Aw, crap you're right.

He is referred to as sheriff by other officers in LALD though.

EON avoided doing an adaptation of LALD for a decade partly because of its racial politics. It was Mankiewicz that insisted on giving this a shot, not only because of the rising trend of blaxploitation films but he saw it as a challenge during that climate, to adapt a Bond novel where the villains were African-American.

The whole concept of Pepper, a white southern sheriff that seems to ENJOY putting a black man under arrest, was a way to subset those racial politics. From what I understand, a lot of his scenes were popular among African-Americans because they enjoyed seeing both Bond and the villains make a mockery out of Pepper. Another factor for Mankiewicz to subside the racial politics was to have Diana Ross be Solitaire, to get away from the racial implications of Bond rescuing the white girl from the clutches of the black menace. EON didn't go for that, because they were too timid of turning off audiences from having the main leading actress a black woman.

And even at that, the love scenes with Bond and Rosie got cut out in some less tolerant places.

I like the portrayal of the villains, they're an overall improvement over how Fleming originally wrote them in the novel as they've got a lot more charisma. Rosie Carver though is the weakest link, not a good actress and the implication of the first black CIA agent that happens to be a traitor is a bummer, and she gets killed by the villain anyway.

Makeshift Python wrote:

the implication of the first black CIA agent that happens to be a traitor is a bummer

It's the function of light entertainment to provide 'positive' role models? Don't be soft.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Don't be soft.

That's simply how I feel on that matter. If you don't like it, choke on bleach.

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Erica Ambler wrote:

Makeshift Python wrote:

That's simply how I feel on that matter. If you don't like it, choke on bleach.

Try thinking instead of feeling. You know, be a man.

I'll do what I want.

Makeshift Python wrote:

the implication of the first black CIA agent that happens to be a traitor is a bummer

Where do you pull this from?

MP wrote:

That's simply how I feel on that matter. If you don't like it, choke on bleach.

Makeshift Python wrote:

I'll do what I want.

Edgy.

What can I say, I'm a bleeding heart liberal, out to implement Obama's evil agenda and put all his opponents in FEMA camps.

But seriously, my whole issue with the Rosie Carver thing is that it plays on the gross "all black people are in on it" angle from the novel (which she wasn't even a part of anyway) and her character never substantially plays out in the grand scheme of things. If all she was gonna do was gonna get shagged by Bond, she might as well have just been room service for Bond before he went off to Kananga's.

Ah now, Strutter's on the side of the angels.

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Our path is a strange and difficult one.

Erica Ambler wrote:

But why not use Zyklon B like your National Socialist colleagues?

By no serious definition nor historical perspective should the Nazis be considered left-wing extremism.

Part of the motivation for the night of the long knives was to cement the close ties between the Nazi elite and the pre-existing (powerful and wealthy) German elite and the captains of industry.

This was one of the main reasons Hitler wanted Röhm gone, because he was perceived as a threat to the upper crust with his oft-expressed desire for wealth redistribution.

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