Thanks for the URLs! The Racialicious review and subsequent comments were most enlightening, containing much I didn’t know about contemporary Nigeria and South Africa. I’m grateful for the education, which I plan to pursue by reading more nonfiction about these and other nations on the African continent. I’m grateful to all the commenters too, for adding their perspectives.

scroll down for comment three as well.

Death Note:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118003063.html?categoryid=1238&cs=1

Full Metal Panic:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-04-15/efron/not-likely-to-be-in-full-metal-panic-project

Ninja Scroll:
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/10/legendary-anime/

District 9 verdict: good, uneven, nausea-inducing, more than a little racist. Here’s what we’ve learned from the film. Spoilers follow the jump, but not many.

1. Aliens are not malevolent. They’ll react to provocation and poverty but ultimately want to be left alone and captain their own destinies. We can agree on that.

2. Nigerians, however, are psychotic savages motivated by superstition, greed and avarice. It’s not really accurate to say that the (mostly) white South Africans are portrayed as blemishless. After all, they’re oppressing and ultimately exterminating the Prawns in pursuit of lucrative military technology. But they’re treated as, well, civilized, even as they act monstrously. The Nigerians in District 9 act without logic and proportion and use violence and voodoo as a first recourse. You could tell the morality play of District 9 entirely without them, and so their inclusion just emphasizes the way in which white anxiety is the engine of the movie.

I also watched a trailer for the feature version of “District 9.” While the alien has “feelers” which make it resemble a cockroach, and its exoskeletal structure also echoes that insect, the pixelated area where a cockroach’s mandibles would be is, I believe, disguising tentacles.

Having read and watched all this, I’m sure I’m not understanding all the reasons why an alien that looks somewhat like a cockroach is a fail. I’m not a PoC. I’m not a rabid Peter Jackson fan. I’ve been reading SF/F/H for over 30 years, and watching it nearly as long. There’s a lot of dreck in movie/TV SF/F/H, imo. Thankfully, there is also a portion of these films that is very fine. I seldom agree with movie critics.

I could guess as to why an alien as a cockroach might be cause for anger, but I don’t like putting words in other people’s mouths. So, if someone could elaborate on this reaction, or point me to some URLs that would do so, I’d be grateful. Thanks in advance. And yes, this is a serious, honest request; I’m not interested in starting wars.