Achebe objects to Heart of Darkness being considered a literary classic because of the way it portrays native Africans as sub-human animals and lesser beings compared to the white men in the novel. In particular, Achebe objects to the rather extreme lengths Conrad goes to in using adjectives to describe the native Africans. As Achebe puts it, Conrad seems obsessed with their blackness and describing it at length. He focuses on those physical attributes and uses them to judge the Africans rather than an internal characteristics they have as people; in fact, Achebe argues that Conrad's portrayal of the Africans doesn't even give them credit as fellow humans. Instead, Conrad (through Marlow) is reluctant to draw connections between the white men and the Africans. Achebe argues that there is something inherently wrong with considering a novel that treats Africans this way a classic. Similar to Heart of Darkness in many aspects, Apocalypse Now shares a similar portrayal of natives (only these natives are native to Cambodia). In Apocalypse Now, these native Cambodians aren't seen until very near the end of the movie. When we finally do get to see them, they are shown almost as zombies, following Captain Willard and the others in a mob. They are shown to have mindlessly given themselves up to the leadership of Kurts, who has taken on a god-like role in their midst. This portrayal is perhaps less offensive than the overtly racist descriptions in Heart of Darkness, but it still isn't very favorable. The Cambodians are similarly shown as less than human in their mindless servitude to Kurtz. One could argue that the point was to show how persuasive Kurtz could be, even in his madness. After all, the first assassin sent to eliminate Kurtz ended up abandoning his mission and joining Kurtz.
I think it is important that you mention how Conrad concentrates on blackness. In the article he also points out Conrad's general racism. This is important because it shows that he did not just make a simple mistaken observation; he already had strong racial prejudices that showed through his writing. His avoidance of closely connecting white and black men as equally the same level of evolution as human truly shows how deep his twisted view warped the truthfulness of his writing. Also, zombies is an interesting word to use to describe Kurtz "children", besides their movements and dead facial expression, they also seem to not care about the dead bodies lying around.
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