GREENFIELD – Is it Halloween fun, or a racist decoration?

A dark mannequin figure was hanging from a tree in front of a Greenfield home. Some members of the African-American community complained it was insensitive and had racial overtones.

The homeowner has taken that figure down, but neighbors didn’t see this as a racial issue.

“It didn’t really strike me as anything unusual. It just looked like part of the graveyard scene,” neighbor Julie Salmeron said.

Click on the link under related content to see an interview with neighbor Julie Salmeron.

The owner says she never intended to offend anyone. The homeowner said the family hung the same mannequin last year for about six weeks without a single complaint and she was surprised by the negative attention it received this year.

The offensive Halloween decoration has been removed, but a makeshift cemetery remains in the front yard with about half a dozen headstones and a partially buried coffin with skeleton heads poking out.

Lenard Wells, a community leader who says a number of people complained to him about the display, says he’s glad the figure has been taken down.

"Sometimes we may forget we may be only a few blocks away from insensitivity," said Wells, the director of adult education at Concordia University South Center. "The question becomes, why couldn't they see the insensitivity of this Halloween display?"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.