Is the film District Nine really as enlightened and politically scathing as it intends to be? Despite the goal of this movie which was to represent apartheid in South Africa, the representation of black people in the film is still as a whole fairly negative. To be fair the representation of almost all the humans in the film are unfavourable. Apart from of course the stereotypical white male protagonist Wikus who selflessly saves Christophers life. The only black character we see for prolonged periods of time is the Nigerian gangster Obesandjo who eats aliens and sells illegal arms. The barbaric practice of eating an alien in the hopes of consuming their powers is a barbaric notion and over exoticness the Nigerians as very unreliable, also the gangs belief in voodoo magic shows them as less advanced while MNU workers also preform experiments on the aliens in an attempt to harness their power they do it scientifically, therefore making them seem more rational. There have been outcries from the Nigerian government about the portrayal in the film which eventually lead to the film being banned by the Nigerian government. It would be wonderful if we could pass these actions off as equal treatment between white and black people saying that they are both equally evil. But unfortunately due to the negative representation of black people in mainstream media, their representation in the film is therefore perpetuating black stereotypes that they are lesser evolved, gun crazy, drug lords who are less advanced than white people, and is much more damaging towards their culture and perception around the world. So in light of this did district nine really accomplish anything in terms of getting the message of acceptance and anti-racism across? The answer is no is film is typical of Hollywood and only appears different on the surface. In this film the alien prawns are seen as more desirable and human then the black characters and in my opinion it would have been more effective to have the antagonist as a black person to counteract their representation in Hollywood, and really make a statement. In then end district nine falls short of being the barrier breaking film in pretends to be.