Dancer’s rebuttal to Magic City cancellation, Luke Kornet, and NBA moralizing: ‘It’s a slap in the face” originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
When the Hawks tried to do something that had never been done before, setting up a controversial collaboration with the Magic City strip club for their March 16 game against the Orlando Magic, everyone had an opinion. Players, fans, and media members all chimed in on why the event should or should not take place.
Advertisement
Commissioner Adam Silver ultimately had the biggest voice. He shut the event down a week before it was scheduled to occur.
The one group who was most directly impacted was notably absent from the conversation. Some people did attempt to speak up on behalf of the dancers. Nobody actually asked them directly.
In order to bridge that gap, we sat down with NatsHoney, an Atlanta-area native who now resides in California. She is currently the president of Strippers United, a stripper workers rights non-profit. She performs exclusively with the Stripper Co-op, a worker-led collective dedicated to prioritizing collective profit-sharing, safety, and the empowerment of marginalized performers. She is also the subject of the newly-released documentary ‘For the Love of Strippers’.
NatsHoney gave us the perspective the NBA never asked for. The following is a lightly-condensed Q&A regarding the event’s cancellation, the industry’s economic impact, and why she believes the league’s protection feels more like a slap in the face.
Advertisement
MORE: NBA pulls plug on Magic City Monday promotion
Magic City Monday Q&A with NatsHoney
What was your reaction to the league’s decision to cancel the Hawks’ Magic City night collaboration?
NatsHoney: That’s a sad turn of events. I’m disappointed. Because the idea that Magic City was having a collaborative event with the Atlanta Hawks, and the Hawks saying that this is a staple within Atlanta, was honoring all the work that this entity has done for our city on a global level. We just wanted to come out and celebrate a little piece of them.
It was a way to say thank you for contributing the tax dollars that we receive from you guys. It’s over $278 million in annual sales from various bars, clubs, and lounges from the city of Atlanta. Magic City is a part of that. There was an opportunity to respect them and kind of tip the hat, if you will.
Advertisement
To cancel, it seems like a slap in the face. It’s a really bad way to go about it.
Spurs center Luke Kornet was one of the strongest proponents for canceling the night, arguing that “the NBA should desire to protect and esteem women” and “allowing this night to go forward without protest would reflect poorly on us as an NBA community, specifically in being complicit in the potential objectification and mistreatment of women in our society.
What would you say to Kornet if you had that chance?
I wouldn’t even want to try to tell somebody what they do or do not understand. I would say it like this. I’m not telling a basketball player how they can or cannot play ball. I’m not telling them where they can or cannot go. I don’t think they should do the same for us. Give us that same respect that I’m giving you. And if you don’t like it, maybe you should keep that opinion to yourself because you’re not us.
Advertisement
And if you feel like you’re speaking up on our behalf, I hate to break it to you. you’re not. You’re belittling us.
If the point was to say I don’t know if these institutions are treating workers right, then that allows for the conversation to now include the workers. But if you’re just outright saying that it’s not right because it’s a faux pas of society to include us, as if we’re not mothers, we’re not students, we’re not going to have other jobs on top of being dancers.
What about Kornet’s critique that “many in this space experience abuse, harassment, and violence to which they should never be subjected?”
There’s a lot that we go through. We go through it all, we hear about it all. My experience as a dancer is very checkered in that light, so I understand where he was coming from, from that aspect.
Advertisement
At the same time, you can’t deny us access to conversations that are about us. That diminishes us that much more. You’re not helping the cause. Now you’re hurting the cause.
You’re continuously saying that we don’t belong in society. Yet we have an institution like Magic City that actually upholds the city to a higher level because of the tax revenue.
Atlanta is known globally for its hip hop scene, its adult nightclub scene, for Magic City, for Strokers, the list goes on and on. To not include the dancers, the workers that are actually in these establishments, into the conversations, it’s sad, frustrating, disappointing, and honestly all too familiar.
If it were up to you, how would you have run the event?
I do agree with the dancers not performing. I think we should keep that inside of the environment where we are structured to do that line of work.
Advertisement
However, I do think they could have implemented some kind of charity donation to a sex worker-led organization in Atlanta. I would have went above and beyond to include the voices of the workers, and also put my money where my mouth is.
I can think of two or three organizations that they could have easily donated money to. Even if it’s not a sex worker-led organization, there are anti-trafficking organizations that support sex workers that could have received the money. I think one of those organizations receives funding from a special tax that the clubs have to pay the city of Atlanta.
(Ed note: Adult entertainment establishments in Georgia must pay either $5,000 annually or 1% of their gross revenue, whichever is greater, to the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund)
So it’s all just kind of right there. I think that sometimes people need to do a little bit more work in terms of thinking about it more broadly. If they can’t do that kind of work, then they need to bring the voices of the workers front and center.
What do you think of the idea of Magic City as a cultural touchstone and what do people who don’t live here fail to understand about it?
I think that people who don’t live here have to understand it, because they know the term Magic City. And if they don’t know the term Magic City, somebody next to them can easily break it down to them. It’s that popular. It’s that known. To not know that information at this point is to be ignorant to hip hop, ignorant to trends, traditions, staples, and culture honestly.
Advertisement
Do you think that the Hawks should try to bring this event back in the future?
I do. I think they should. Don’t let the air out of the balloon, keep up the fight.
They want to come together and do this collaboration, they felt like it would be a success, they should go with their gut instinct. We should be allowed to exist. We do exist. Magic City contributes to the tax revenue of the city. Put some respect on their name.
What should they do the next time around?
This could have had a better outcome and more of a community coming together if they would have invited the dancers to the conversation from the beginning. If they would have had four or five employees speaking on their work relationship with the club in a positive manner. Then nobody would have been able to say that this particular entity doesn’t treat their dancers correctly.
Advertisement
I feel like we need those kinds of examples everywhere. We need to build community. We need to be talking to each other. The dancer who’s a mom, who’s bringing their child to the Hawks game, we need to say that’s okay, not tell her that she doesn’t belong.