NBA was right to nix Hawks’ Magic City event. Now talk about why it mattered.
On March 9, the NBA canceled the Atlanta Hawks’ “Magic City Monday” promotion planned for March 16.
As a coalition of Atlanta-based organizations that work daily alongside survivors of exploitation, advocating for their dignity and long-term healing, we want to say: “Thank you.”
We also want to say something else: Let this be a beginning, not an end.
When the Hawks announced their partnership with local strip club Magic City, our organizations came together to write an open letter asking the team to reconsider.
We are grateful that Commissioner Adam Silver listened, and we appreciate the players, including Luke Kornet and Al Horford, who spoke publicly about their concerns.
Consider the women and girls who are exploited
Following the NBA’s decision, we’d invite our Atlanta community to sit with something deeper.
In our collective work as anti-trafficking advocates, our organizations have been involved in countless cases where traffickers groomed, recruited or forced women to work at strip clubs and took all of the money those women earned.
We have seen underage girls given fake IDs and made to dance in these venues.
Recent cases from Wisconsin and Texas further illustrate the ways the strip club industry can intersect with, and even be complicit in, trafficking and exploitation.
Scarlet Hope and 4Sarah, local organizations that provide support to women in the adult entertainment industry, have given voice to the trauma experienced by women in these environments.
As further evidence, a 2018 Johns Hopkins University study of over 100 women who were new to dancing in strip clubs (less than six months) found that 73% reported alcohol use disorder and 44% reported illicit drug use.
Work together to find solutions to a complex problem
Magic City Monday was never just about the right environment for a night out. Major sporting events are consistently linked to spikes in demand for commercial sex and to increases in sex trafficking activity.
We have sat with women who were trafficked during the very weeks when major sporting events brought thousands of visitors into our city. We have walked alongside survivors who were first recruited into exploitation through the promise of work at a club.
When a beloved institution like the Hawks celebrates a strip club as part of the game-night experience, it sends a signal to survivors, to the public and to those who profit from exploitation about what this city values and chooses to celebrate.
We want to be honest: We are not interested in a simple story. Magic City has been part of Atlanta’s cultural fabric for 40 years, and we understand that.
Culture is complicated. Exploitation is complicated. But complexity is not a reason to stay quiet; it’s a reason to have more honest conversations.
Atlanta is preparing to host 2026 FIFA World Cup matches. The city has already released a Human Rights Action Plan connected to that event, a sign that our leaders understand the risks that can accompany large international gatherings and desire to be prepared. That is the Atlanta we want to build on.
So, here is our invitation: to the Hawks, to the NBA, to city leaders, and to anyone who found themselves thinking about these questions — we invite you into conversation. We want to work together, learn from one another and search for real solutions to address the systems that allow exploitation to flourish.
There is nothing magical about exploitation. But there is something powerful about a city willing to look at itself honestly and ask how it can do better. We believe Atlanta is that city, and we’ll be here, ready to do that work together.
Signatories: Kasey McClure of 4Sarah, Jessica Lamb of Atlanta Redemption Ink, Amelia Quinn of BeLoved, Matt Hackey of FLT316, Susan Norris of Rescuing Hope, Rebecca Holley of Scarlet Hope, Tricia Boschert of She’s My Sister South Atlanta, Jeff Shaw of The Freedom Collective and Victoria Shelton-Stroud of Wellspring Living.
