Dove Awards Share Kirk Franklin’s Police Brutality Speech After Editing It From Broadcast
Gospel artist Kirk Franklin recently said that he will be boycotting the Dove Awards and Trinity Broadcasting Network because they edited his acceptance speech to omit his part where he talked about police brutality.
On Monday (Oct. 28), Franklin took to Instagram to explain. “During my speech, I brought attention to the murder of Atatiana Jefferson in her home by a white police officer,” Franklin said in his Instagram video.
“I asked everyone in the audience and those viewing to join me in prayer for not only Atatiana’s family, including her 8-year-old nephew who witnessed the killing but also for the family of the police officer. Last week, during the airing of the awards on the same network, again, that part of my speech was edited out.”
Jefferson was shot by a police officer while she was playing video games with her nephew. A neighbor had called the police and asked them to do a welfare check on Jefferson because he noticed her door was open, as CNN reports.
Following Franklin posting his video on Instagram, the Gospel Music Association, which hosts the Dove Awards issued an apology.
“We would like to publicly acknowledge that we are deeply apologetic for the missteps that happened relating to the editing of Kirk Franklin’s Dove Awards acceptance speech,” said Jackie Patillo, the association president, in an official statement.
“It left a general perception that we are not concerned with key social issues that affect people of color. It is not our intent to disregard or silence any of our artists, and we are deeply saddened by this perception and are committed to change this.”
In efforts with GMA, TBN also published Franklin’s unedited full speech.
During the 50th Annual GMA Dove Awards that were held on October 15 in Nashville, Franklin won gospel artist of the year. On October 20, the award show aired on TBN.
