Big Brother 28 alum Kamu Kirk has broken his silence over his controversial video making a remark about George Floyd.
“I’ve never been one to give into peer pressure or seek approval from others, which is one of the reasons why I haven’t addressed this until now. But let’s talk about it,” Kamu, 32, said in a video shared via X on Friday, October 9. “Shortly after the cast was announced for Big Brother season 28, people started trashing me and my character.”
The MMA fighter continued, “Before the first episode even aired assumptions were made about me because of my profession, my faith and whatever else. Mind you, none of this was coming from people who know me. You never heard anything from disgruntled ex-girlfriends or former teammates. Nah, you heard a bunch of noise from people who don’t know me, never met me, have never had a conversation with me.”
While Kamu was in the Big Brother house, he earned backlash on social media when a video of him making a remark about Floyd resurfaced online. Following his eviction from the game in August, he learned about the controversy but opted to not speak about it.
“So when I got out of the house and I learned about all this, I definitely did not feel any obligation to immediately appease the same people who had been trashing my character for weeks,” he said.
Despite the backlash Kirk shared that he felt “fine” and was unbothered by the online discourse.
“I don’t get my self-worth from the internet. I know who I am, I know what I’m about and I know what I stand for,” he explained. “And so do the people who are closest to me and who I care the most about. Ultimately those are the only opinions that matter to me.”
However, Kamu decided to address the incident now because his season 28 castmates — including LaTrice “Lala” Verett and Taylor Brown — who remained in the game since the October 1 finale are being “harrassed” about it.
“Lala’s getting DMs, Taylor has people in her comment section and in her live feeds all over social media. My fellow castmates are being tagged in posts about me and comments are being made in their live streams as well,” he claimed. “Once my family and friends start getting dragged into something that they had absolutely nothing to do with, that’s when I gotta speak up.”
Kamu shared that he wanted to explain the context of the full video and “not just the short clip that went viral.” The video was from “about a year ago” and Kamu heard “loud noises” outside of his apartment at the time. He decided to get up, check it out and “started filming.” While outside, Kamu saw a man who was being disorderly while being arrested by police. According to Kamu, who also shared additional footage from the night in the new video, the man was shouting out things like “shots fired” when there was no actual gunfire. After the man was put in the cop car, he shouted “I can’t breathe” and Kamu reacted with his now-viral quip, “Bro thinks he’s George Floyd.”
“It’s very clear when you watch the whole video and not just the short clip. What I was laughing at was my surprise that this man was trying to act like what he was going through was even remotely close to what George Floyd went through,” Kamu explained on Friday. “The irony was that at that moment I felt like the man was mocking George Floyd. But that short clip went viral and is still making its rounds everywhere. I was made out to look like I was mocking George Floyd. I was not laughing at George Floyd. I wasn’t mocking his death. And I wasn’t laughing at somebody being brutally attacked by my police or supporting police brutality. I would never do those things.”
Kamu shared that the full video is on his social media page and he doesn’t plan on deleting it because the shortened version already went viral.
