This was probably a bad idea: "Asian-American activists offended that MARTA re-named the train line into the heart of Atlanta's Asian community the 'yellow line' will take their objections to the transit agency's chief on Friday. 'Yellow,' as a term for skin color, carries a generally negative, racist connotation among Asians." [Via]
Oh come on, "color-coding" just makes it easier to know where you're going.
The MARTA's red line, by the way, is actually an express train to Oklahoma.
But it can really simplify things for tourists!
Oh MARTA... I lived in suburban Atlanta for a while and asked people why MARTA didn't extend farther north and was told that it would be used by criminals from the "Inner City" as a way to gain access to North Fulton County to burgle houses. Did they name the line that terminates at North Springs the "White Line"? They should have.
I would love to meet a burglar who used mass transit as an escape means.
(I'm picturing the Hamburglar on MetroNorth coming back into Manhattan with sacks with dollar signs on them).
I can verify this. When my family moved into Forsyth County (a suburb a little north of Atlanta) our new neighbors tried to drum up our support against a ballot measure extending Marta bus service into our county. My parents asked why, and the response was a blank look, followed by "Oh honey, we don't want those people up here!"
And then we found out that Forsyth County had been until recently the national seat of the KKK! No wonder land was so affordable!
I had a business in the Cumming/Suwannee area. I was surrounded by multi-million dollar homes and during the run-up to the '08 elections I had to listen to numerous, very serious, daily discussions among my customers about Barack Obama being the AntiChrist.
Cumming is schizophrenic like that. Also, try being 14 and telling people you live in "Cumming."
http://cummingsingles.com/
My cousin had to fly into Atlanta for work once and since MARTA basically goes directly from the airport to the office he needed to go to, he took it rather than wrangling with a rental car, and all the people at the Atlanta office were *horrified.* One of them told him that MARTA stood for "moving Africans rapidly through Atlanta". CLASSY.
I think it's probably not so much a race thing as coincidence and the fact that Asians are cowards.
I really hope the transit authority doesn't chicken out and give in to their demands.
I think it's totally appropriate because Asians, you know, can't drive.
MARTA is also rethinking their 'retard line'.
More rethinking: Might go back to Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority from Making Atlanta Repugnant to Asians.
Moving Asians Rapidly Through Atlanta...how bout that?
Only the MARTA folk could inspire a new twist on the old joke.
Yellow line is a lot better than the second choice - rice rocket.
Or Yerrow Rine.
Orient Express.
The Silk Road.
Maybe they named it after them because they built it?
You don't hear the Na'vi bitching about the cheap ride to the Georgia Dome.
This post doesn't say what the original name was. The Fark post this one links to doesn't say what the original name was. And the original Atlanta Journal-Constitution article that Fark links to doesn't say what the original name was until the 12th farking graf.
I was gonna make a joke or two, but after all that damn work, now I don't feel like it.
Many more exciting Asian stereotypes here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/sports/olympics/24longman.html?ref=olympics
I reside in Atlanta. I had no idea there was an Asian neighborhood here, let alone one capable of group outrage over mass transit nomenclature. The more you know!