Atlanta's Re-Names Train Route to Asian Community "Yellow Line," Sparks Controversy Over Negative Connotations

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transportation Authority, MARTA, has found itself in a racial controversy. You see, some genius working for MARTA decided to re-name the train line that runs into Doraville, the heart of Atlanta's Asian community, the "yellow line." The word "yellow," which is a term for skin color carries negative connotations and is generally viewed as racist by Asians. Gee, I can just imagine the outrage if MARTA had implemented a "black line." According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, officials were warned by an employee before the name was changed last October, but they decided to heed that warning and now find themselves in the middle of a hot mess.

Asian-American activists will reportedly meet with MARTA CEO Beverly Scott on Friday and they hope the name will be changed from "yellow" to gold. She told the AJC that when the concern was raised, they were approaching the end of a year-long process to implement the change and "everything was printed." The color-coded lines were launched on October 1, 2009, as a way to help passengers navigate the transit system more easily -- red, green, blue and yellow. Er, if you have lived in a big city, such as New York City or Chicago, MARTA pales in comparison to those train lines. The number of cars that make up each train is far less than subway trains in New York City, for example, and they routes are very limited -- four routes. Why this is such an intricate and complicated issue is beyond me.

According to the AJC, John Yasutake, a former manager of equal opportunity and conflict resolution at MARTA, had initially raised concern over the re-naming of the route to the "yellow line" during a so-called "senior staff meeting" on September 1.  He claims the staff did not seem concerned about the negative connotations of such a move. Well, here we are months later and MARTA, which is in dire financial straits, is struggling to fight negative PR over this. Why can't they name these routes based on the last stop or the name of the main thoroughfare at that last stop? That would be so much simpler.