Some fans of Star Wars actor John Boyega condemned his tweet in which he declared he "f'king hates racists" in response to the tragic death of George Floyd.
Floyd died on Monday after a Minneapolis police officer pinned the unarmed man to the ground and kneeled on his neck.
A video shot by a bystander that circulated online showed the officer—who appeared to be White— pressing his knee into Floyd's neck while the victim said repeatedly:
"Please man, I can't breathe. I cannot breathe. I cannot breathe."
Warning: the video below is extremely graphic.
Moments later, Floyd's eyes closed and he became unresponsive. Bystanders can be heard demanding other officers help Floyd while one officer can be seen standing and observing the crowd.
Boyega—along with other infuriated social media users—expressed his outrage on Twitter.
"This just burns," wrote the 28-year-old actor.
"Seems to be a never ending cycle. The murderers need to be charged severely. Even in the face of death this man was given zero empathy."
The British actor—who is known for portraying Finn in the Stars Wars sequel trilogy— posted a picture of Floyd superimposed with a quote of his final words heard in the video.
He later followed up his tweet verbalizing his outrage without mincing words.
@JohnBoyega/Twitter
While many fans stood by the actor, others criticized his comments aimed at racists.
One Twitter user responded that as a White person she has been a victim of racism.
"Racism isn't targeted towards black people. I'm white and I've had my fair share of people being racist to me."
Another wrote:
"Racism is not limited to one race."
And another hot take was all racism is bad.
"ALL racism is bad, not just white on black. Let's leave it at that."
@Johnwic95034123/Twitter
Boyega responded that his tweet was aimed at the "current situation."
Some criticized him for responding at all.
Insider said that he also continued the conversation on Instagram Live:
"It's very very important at this time that we ignore ignorance, and we ignore people that come through and try to make these situations what they're not."
"I'm not even apologizing first of all. You lot better f-----g believe that."
"But there's no way that I have the opinion that there's no other forms of racism. Of course there's other forms of racism."
"But a black man was just murdered in cold blood, in the streets, Stateside, again, while saying that he can't breathe."
He added that if any of his fans were racist, they would be blocked.
"If you're a fan of me and you support my work and you're racist and you're arguing with what I was saying, f--- off. You f------ d---heads."
Some took more issue with his detonating the F-bomb.
His character from the Star Wars franchise is owned by Disney which some people brought up.
@YourPalPapaScho/Twitter
But Boyega reminded them that this was his personal account.
Still, others had the actor's back.
Keep speaking your truth John. If anyone has an issue with it, there is always an option to not follow on Twitter.
@lacho_ai/X
@MimzyNGB/X
@ecofishsex/X
@EriahSteve/X
@Hetty714/X
