The Atlanta Hawks recently held the MOSAIC: Race & Gender in Sports forum at The National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. The event featured Atlanta Hawks board member Grant Hill; his mother, Janet Hill; author Kevin Powell; and Nzinga Shaw, the chief diversity and inclusion officer of the Atlanta Hawks..
During the event, panelists discussed the importance of diversity and inclusion. “The most important part of those conversations with that information is that we want to invite people from across the city and across multiple sectors to make sure that the conversations that are being had today are shared,” Shaw said. “The city of Atlanta has six million people so obviously it’s impossible to be seen by everyone. What we did was pick the people we considered leaders in their space, people that are change agents, people that are consistently working in that diversity efficient space and have a platform to push our agenda.”
Grant Hill discussed how today’s athletes respond to political issues. “I was talking to Bill Russell along with Muhammed Ali, Jim Brown, and real activists during the Civil Rights Movement and how they used their platform in sports to really effect change and make a difference,” Hill said. “My generation, I don’t know if they’re doing a good job. I really don’t know if we were good examples for this current generation.”
The MOSAIC (Model Of Shaping Atlanta through Inclusive Conversations) will be an ongoing vehicle for the Hawks to facilitate meaningful and actionable dialogue on various facets of diversity and inclusion in Atlanta.
