After being called a "Harry Potter looking mother fucker", "white ass sumbitch", "saltine fuck" etc. on MARTA, I can tell you that no, it's unpleasant. Most of the people I know who told me not to take MARTA were middle-upper class African American people.
You live near Five Points and don't feel unsafe? Are you inside the Georgia State bubble, or on the courthouse side? I've been followed a number of times after coming out of Five Points MARTA. I've had four people follow me and call me a "Harry Potter looking motherfucker" who only left when I passed a cop. I mean I got used to the city and knew what to do/where not to go, but the paths I had to take and where not to go were usually only a block of difference.
And Five Points used to actually just have gangs hanging out on the sidewalk before they cracked down two years ago. I've been threatened, but never attacked, on MARTA, but I'm a big guy (6' 5" and 210 pounds while I was taking MARTA), and nearly all of my female friends had a "a couple of people tried to block my exit and stop me from getting to my car" stories. My fiancee had two guys wait outside of the station exit gates saying "Here, kitty kitty" at night -- and that was at Sandy Springs MARTA. The east/west line is way worse.
I've never felt unsafe on MARTA rail. But Five Points? When I worked at 101 Marietta, every one of my MARTA-ing co-workers had a story of working late and getting mugged on the way to the train.
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