Zombie or racism? Man painted on dartboard draws accusations
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A family in north Raleigh painted a picture of a man on a dartboard to use for target practice, but its bringing cries of racism.
It was an ABC11 Eyewitness viewer on Facebook that first brought the dartboard to our attention.
It's the figure painted on the target board that drew neighbors' concerns. Some believed the figure was a black man the family was hurling knives and darts at.
The eyewitness wrote "let's stand together and make a call for peace and respect for all people."
"To have it facing the street, so people can see it, there's a reason why you're doing it," said neighbor Demetrius Harden.
Driving up Fox Road, the dartboard is hard to miss. It was built in the family's backyard, but it's plainly visible from the road.
Some said the tattered clothes on the man make him appear to be a slave. Harden had seen it and found it offensive.
"It look racist. It looks like racism. It looks like racism," Harden said.
When ABC11's Joel Brown went looking for answers, he found 20-year-old Katie Fister. She said she helped paint the target board, because her family is into knife throwing and darts.
Fister said the charges of racism couldn't be further from the truth.
"We painted a zombie on it because we thought that would be fun," Fister explained.
Fister said that's not a black man they're using for target practice, it's a zombie. She said the green paint the family used dried a lot darker than they thought it would.
"And when the sun went down, it doesn't look green at all. And we were like 'oh no...'" Fister said. "I sent (my brother) a picture and was like 'look, the dart board's up,' and he's like, 'why's he black?' And I'm like 'no, no. no, that's not what I meant.'"
Some neighbors don't think that Fister is telling the truth.
"I can't really say I buy that. If I was to paint your shirt green right now, it wouldn't dry up and be brown," Harden said.
"I don't want to upset anybody," Fister said. "And I don't want to offend anybody."
Fister reached out to ABC11 on Tuesday and told us the family has removed the target board. She also said she's willing to make personal apologies to neighbors who may have been offended.
