If I'm not mistaken, wasn't a cross burned in front of the AKA house at UA sometime in the not too distant past? If that's the case, I can see that there would be a level of sensitivity on both sides.
Seriously, people have been called Yankees? In all my born days, I've never heard anyone say that with a straight face. I grew up in the South, and have spent my entire adult life in the Northeast. The only time I hear anything about the Yankees, it's in reference to the unfortunate baseball team in the Bronx...