HOW CAN DISTRICT 9 BE SEEN AS A COMMENT ON IMMIGRATION? by Clare D

dorrell

2013-11-06 13:09:50 UTC

the film shows a society without the aliens, a society used to life amongst their own kind, it then shows how the aliens come to earth and at first all the humans want to to is help but their motives then change. The humans separate themselves from the aliens and make them feel very unwelcome, this reflects post-colonialism in the sense that when the west first arrived they were looking to trade and learn new things, then their motives changed and they began to make the people whos land it was feel alienated and powerless

dorrell

2013-11-06 13:19:50 UTC

in relation to our groups question

Abi

2013-11-06 16:21:47 UTC

The attitudes held by the british during the days of the british empire were always negative to those were not originally british, which meant kicking out all the asians, and trying not to offer work to those who were not British but provide jobs only to those that were british; to the extreme point that they wanted to stop paying foreigners and use that money towards pensioners. In relation to our group I still believe that sterotypes still exist and certain ethnic groups do suffer from this. For example, during the times of colonialism, immigration did occur which caused most of the black peole to migrate to the UK in order to work and seek for jobs but however, they were always seen as those looking for something or runing everywhere just to bring some sort of income; thhy were potrayed as always in need. In our society now, stereotyopes still exist because afro- carribeans are heavily looked down upon, and are always known for living off council flates, benefits, suffering from lack of employment ans so forth.

Abi

2013-11-06 16:36:36 UTC

The film does comment on Post colonial issues in they way in which it has been presented. Immigration did occur alongside colonialism because the black people lived in slumbs and struggled to find their daily bread which even included the women prostituting with the aliens in order to survive. They were dominated and controlled by the aliens in a way and felt like they were restricted,

Zowe

2013-11-07 10:16:09 UTC

In relation to language as a tool of power, which was the broader question my group was discussing, our society today is very much similar to that of the film in the sense that words such as "nigger" are used as a tool of power for (some may argue) white people over the black ethnic groups. The same way the aliens were given names such as "the prawn" almost automatically downgrading them suggesting they weren't equal to the humans. However one can argue that the meaning of this word has been manipulated by the black ethnic group themselves and now has a differerent meaning from what it originally did therefore it may not be seen as a tool of power anymore.

Rickiesha

2013-11-07 10:32:07 UTC

There are numerous relations between the structure of the film and 'post colonial' ideas,such as immigration. The government/ those who lived within district 9 where not thrilled with the robots arrival. The people people protested and fought forthem to be migrated. Final force was made once the police swamped in and was on mission to evict the robots out of district 9. The link is based upon therobots not being 'normal'/like the other who lived in district 9. Not only does this reflect the idea of immigration on a whole, but in particular ED who decidedthat he wanted all the 'Asians’ in Uganda to migrate, as he wanted to maintainit how he believed it should be. In my opinion I get the impression that this concept is portrayed in the film

Tarik

2013-11-07 10:39:08 UTC

The film has been constructed to comment on the issues of Post Colonialism. This has been done by showing the clear seperation between humans and the aliens like the speration in South Africa between blacks and whites which only ended in the 1980's.

Tarik

2013-11-07 10:47:06 UTC

The film in relation to my groups question lets the audience see both sides to the story; from the aliens side and from the view point of the humans which is basically representing immigrants as the aliens and white people as humans.

Rickiesha

2013-11-07 11:13:59 UTC

As my group was initial given the topic 'carnival' our broader discussion was about stereotypes in the UK and is there a certain ethnic group which suffersfrom it?

On a whole those who aren't classed as British seem to be victims of negativity (even though it can be argued who/what is really classed as British). In my opinion those who are black appear to receive it most, which dates back to colonial dates - pear soap adverts, slave masters 'NIGGERS' etc. We're painted as those who sell drugs/hustlers/gangsters, drug dealers, living off the working classes taxes and not forgetting benefiting of high raised run down council estates known for the worst crimes. All of which can be linked to the film.

Youhad the Nigerians living in the slums with the robots - highlighting the fact that even though the Nigerians won't be getting turfed out of district 9 they're associating with them as they have no actual morals (just scum).

Not to mention you had a leader within that area - demonstrating the stereotype view of gangsters and gangs. As well as the Nigerians exploiting the robots selling cat food at higher prices this also reflects the hustler/ drug dealer aspect of stereotypes.

Even though the Nigerians are made to look like the bourgies (apart from when women are prostituting themselves to the robots) whereas the robots are the polterians. It still creates the impression of the typical stereotypes of black people, which is definitely current/relevant to today’s society/culture.

Zowe

2013-11-07 11:42:28 UTC

Zowe

2013-11-07 11:44:05 UTC

The film does relate to post-colonial issues. The most obvious being the issue of immigration. The film is almost a remake of "District Six" which was an area where former slaves, merchants and other immigrants lived during the 1800's/1900's in similar conditions as the aliens in the film. Also just like the aliens those from District Six were forcefully migrated to another area because white people saw them as unequal or not the same as them and District Six was then declared a "white-only" area. Same way the aliens in the film were forced to immigrate and District 9 was declared a "human only area".

Shantelle

2013-11-07 12:50:35 UTC

the film in connection to post coloial issues is very relevant, the issues seen in the film like immigration as the aliens were allowed to stay in South Africa, and the people of the country did not like it, this is seen in post colonialism as many countries e.g Britain did not like the idea of immigration when it first began, also in the film the aiens were seen to get special treatment, which some may see in post colonialism today.

Shantelle

2013-11-07 12:54:24 UTC

The attitudes of the British Immigrants were somewhat negative towars every other race that were not British. Today the steryotypes still exist with black peoplpe being steryotyped for being gang affiliated, and coming out of poverty and even to muslims and people of asian decent being associated with terrorism. However, The attitudes of the British have been a little more relaxed since the 50's and 60's when many people from British Clonies Immigrated to Britian, especially in many urban towns such as the capital, London, and places like Birmingham and Lecister where these places are now seen to be mullticultural.

Cherrelle

2013-11-07 16:03:45 UTC

My group was focusing on the windrush group and how it is similar to how the aliens came to be living in Johannesburg in the first place and also their living conditions that they were placed in by the authorities.

After watching district 9 we found that the aliens migrated to Johannesburg because their ship was stuck in the air. Also a key point is that the aliens only came down to earth due to the humans interfering .This relates to the Windrush because those people from the Caribbean wouldn't of came over to England if it wasnt for the British advertising that they needed people to come over and work. In addition to that when the aliens first started to live on the earth with the humans they lived in tents then in huts; it sort of resembled a refugee camp and The arrivals on the Windrush were temporarily housed in the Clapham south deep shelter. They were both given temporary accommodation.

Cherrelle

2013-11-07 16:38:13 UTC

The film District 9 clearly shows the post colonial issues especially the issue regarding immigration. I think that you can compare the separation between the humans and aliens to the separation between the Black and White people in the original district 6 in South Africa where over 60,000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed during the 1970s by the apartheid regime. I feel as though that is the mainissue portrayed in District 9

Almina

2013-11-07 20:54:45 UTC

The question my group were focusing on was the type of language used to describe a certain ethnic group, we looked at the word 'nigger' and how this

word was originally used to degrade or dehumanize 'black people' the same as in the movie when the aliens were called 'prawns'.

Almin

2013-11-07 21:00:20 UTC

A

2013-11-07 21:00:23 UTC

The film District 9 links to Post Colonialism in a metaphorical way. The aliens are almost seen as the 'immigrants' in Britain. The aliens live on estates and how the people wanted to kick them out of their country. They were seen as criminals and the government came to the aliens houses wanting to relocate them. This is also similar to Idi Amin who forced Indians out of Uganda.

Imran

2013-11-07 22:22:54 UTC

The film has been constructed in a way to show us the effects of post colonialism.

F

2013-11-08 08:32:23 UTC

The Nigerians are presented to exploit the aliens and charge extortionate prices for things such as ;food almost like gangsters living along side them in the slums.

Faye

2013-11-08 08:37:27 UTC

The film comments on post colonial issues in a way to show how the people in Johannesburg transported the aliens from their ship the same way Britain went around transporting people from their countries to Britain to be used as a source of labour and almost be conditioned into the ways of the British , which they thought was the best way as in that time period white British was seen to be a higher superior race to any other. The aliens represent the way the British saw the other races they thought to be less superior almost alien like and uncivilised.

Benedicta

2013-11-11 11:06:04 UTC

in relation to windrush, the ailen ship stopping above

johannesburg and the humans going to disturb them and bring them to earth

was like the ship windrush going to the carrib countries and bringing them to englnd to work. the living conditions which they

were left in in the slum was like how the black people who migrated to england all lived together and were eventually seen

as a nuicance to the ocuntry,

clare

clareswhere — 2014-04-10 09:38:19 UTC

clareswhere — 2015-05-06 14:09:45 UTC