The Problem with Color-Coding
February 9, 2010 | 11:23 amPerhaps MARTA should have gone with a numbering system for its rail transit.
The AJC reports that MARTA is in some hot water with the Asian community around Doraville because the agency labeled its Doraville train route the “Yellow Line”.
“Historically, it has had a derogatory intent,” said John Park, an attorney with the nonprofit Center for Pan Asian Community Services in Doraville, just down the hill from the Marta station. “It physically paints a very unattractive picture. I don’t consider myself ‘yellow.’”
Park and other Asian activists plan to meet Friday with MARTA CEO Beverly Scott. They hope MARTA will change the line’s name from yellow to gold…
“Anybody who rides MARTA knows that the line going up through that area is heavily Asian,” said Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. “These are always sensitive issues. Anticipation of concern and sensitivity, and the outreach, probably should have been done before.”
*In a related thought, Andisheh wonders if anyone is offended that NYC’s yellow line goes through Chinatown.
Sensitivity to the name to entirely appropriate. Additionally, the name is unimaginative, boring and seems to tell you very little about where you’re going.
Gold is much better name and it give the opportunity to repaint the maps with sparkle paint!
Seriously?! Seriously?! It’s this kind of junk that detracts from the real insensitivity that is out there.
Well I’m a Southerner and I have been highly offended ever since the E/W line was blue! I mean it brings up so many personally painful memories of Sherman’s march through Atlanta. How could MARTA be so thoughtless in remembering the true history of Atlanta and the northern aggression?
Come on MARTA!
Oh, and adding insult to injury, the photo accompanying the article shows a train with YELLOW head lights. Oh the insensitivity!
It’s a good thing I never ride MARTA.
*<8^)
Yeah, and MARTA is totally discriminating against Forsyth County, clearly, since the Red Line gets closest to all those rednecks up there.
What about the Martians living on the west side? Are they upset about the Green Line?
Come on people, the Yellow Line also goes through other communities. It starts at the Airport, for crying out loud. Lots of other cities have yellow lines without problems. Washington’s Chinatown is served by the Yellow Line (Green and Red too) and nobody is freaking out there.
HA! I love ‘The Onion.’ Oh wait…
As an overly sensitive Asian, even I think this is pretty silly. Unless there’s a smoking gun memo out there that says, “hey guys, you know what would be funny? Let’s name this the Yellow Line! Get it? It runs through Doraville! That’s where a lot of Asian people live! Hahahahaha!” Cause in that case, then I could support the outrage.
Yeah, I’m kinda curious whether it’s the AJC that’s making a mountain out of a molehill here. It’s the #1 article on the AJC right now, but how many folks actually have a problem with it?
The article never says. Just has a couple of quotes from a few different folks. This is one of those things I find completely lacking in the traditional journalism model. They leave out all aspects of how their story was gathered. Did they attempt to find a large opposition group and couldn’t? Did they find the opposite?
It’s a huge question. This could be a handful of people who represent a small, passionate group or it could be a massive movement in Doraville. The omission leaves it up to our imagination.
It just gives the folks in the legislature another reason to claim MARTA is mis-managed.
Actually, DM, it’s the shortfall of what is PASSING for traditional journalism….
” I don’t consider myself ‘yellow.’”
Obviously, he does.
“Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike: as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called “diversity” actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist.” Ron Paul
Yeah, Ron Paul was a genius to rip off Ayn Rand.
Doesn’t make that quote any less accurate.
Ok, but he sure is mixing his disciplines here: you have psychology, then sociology, then ethnography all supporting an assumption that all people who live together, and identify with one another are racists. Turn it backwards: how does racism lead to diversity? Perhaps by the individual identifying the existence of the “other”? How does the individual separate himself from “the other” if not by appearance? And isn’t he performing a little slight of hand by shifting the focus from the individual that would in fact be wary of, not only someone not like himself but also of collections of people, whether they resembled him or not? Doesn’t that sound racist–and sociopathic? Also, and I mostly like Paul, but his veneration for the rugged individualist founding fathers of this country should show how much he really cares about racism.
“By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called “diversity” actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist.”
His argument at the end still has not made a connection between people living together in society and racist intent–well, other than saying it is so. He is essentially saying that it is not racist to not identify with people who gather in groups other than your own little individualistic collection.
Not that the article isn’t complete crap, but so is the logic in Paul’s statement.
I get your sarcasm; your logic is what baffles me. Perhaps I should have stuck with a simpler and easier to comprehend saying to express my opinion.
Political Correctness: A doctrine… which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
That’s a great way to describe PC, perfect actually. As for my sarcasm, there was none, and you are begging the question on my logical attack of Paul’s statement.
Essentially, human beings are social creatures–we gather in groups and view other groups with suspicion. Randians are no different then the rest of us and their thought and ideas are not–I repeat, are not under attack. Political Correctness has been dead for years–I wish both sides would just let it go.
I think the logic is pretty basic – racial group identity is the basis for both racism and multiculturalism. MLK Jr. had a third way – judge people by the content of their character (i.e. on an individual basis), rather than the color of their skin (i.e. a group basis).
Paul, like Ayn Rand could have used fewer words to communicate the concept.
People like things to be easy–appearance is real easy, and you don’t have to get know someone to know you wouldn’t like them.
And Davo, I understood your original post just fine–I have a problem with the logic involved, oh, and the fact that it doesn’t mention political correctness–only sociological grounds for anti-social behavior. (Which sounds a little like the mad man running the insane asylum.)
I just realized that the line I take to go see the Braves is the RED line. As someone who may have some native indian blood somewhere, I am deeply offended.
You have to be kidding!
Oh for crying out loud.
How about the fact that there are 13 people in the diversity office at MARTA? If the big budget shortfall comes next year, I think I know where the cuts should start…
I am offended by the white lines on the street markings.
Who do I call about that?
The AJC, obviously
i just wish they had kept the lines “north, south, east, and west..” which actually, you know, bore a rational relationship to where the train was going…
Excellent point. I have yet to understand the value of the colors over the prior labels which were much more descriptive–West Bankhead tells me much more than Green Bankhead. Colors make sense in cities with complex transit systems with lots of lines, branches, and stops. Our use of colors is just pretentious. (And confusing).
It’s called dumbing down. Rather than expect people to know where N, S, E and W are, they figure colors are easier to understand.
I checked with my African-American friends, and they really aren’t bothered by the fact that the tires on my car are black, and are oppressed by the 3,500 pounds of weight on top of them.
Well, Eric, apparently Asian people are more sensitive.
Just wait till Arthur Blank gets his way and the new Falcon stadium is dumped on Doraville-then MARTA will have a red and black line.
Following up on my previous statement about the AJC making a mountain out of a molehill…
A reliable source writes in “one of the offended people, helen kim, is married to AJC reporter Rodney Ho.”
This not only brings up the question of INFLUENCE but also, has this been blown out of proportion by the AJC?
This story is all over those internet pipes today.
I’m not going to presume to judge if something is offensive to another, but based on your post this is looking like a controversy invented by an AJC reporter for personal reasons.
I’m glad everyone (not everyone on DM of course) is occupying their time with this idiotic story rather than getting agitated over the train-wreck of a a transit system that is MARTA. The REAL racism and discrimination is all the local county and state people that won’t adequately fund MARTA or work to improve it because they want nothing to do with it because it is all about ____________ people (fill in the blank with whatever ethnic, social or economic category works best for your area).
And FYI, “yellow” is also a common term for “cowards,” so why be all elitist and claim “yellow” only for the Asians?
Dude, I ride MARTA everyday–you don’t think I’m “agitated” enough over it already?
all I can say is, COME ON PEOPLE. it’s a joke right? because I vote for an orange line, so i can stand steadfast with Cromwell.
Now that is offensive! Cromwell, may he rot well in his own personal place.
If MARTA named the train that went to the southside, the Black Line, I wonder how different this conversation would be. I think very different because we would all assume the name WAS race-related, while we assume this was just a harmless mistake. I don’t blame this group, or person, for speaking up about this. I just wish, like the MARTA spokesperson I heard on the radio, that they had brought this up during the planning process and during the public hearings.
Oh stuff and bother. If MARTA named the line to the airport the Black Line, nobody would have even thought about it being a skin color reference.
I can’t get upset till they put in a pasty white/freckle line….