Twitter Removes Tweet From Professor Wishing Queen Elizabeth II ‘Excruciating’ Pain That Was Condemned by Jeff Bezos
Twitter deleted a Thursday tweet from a university professor wishing Queen Elizabeth II, in her final moments on the throne, “excruciating” pain – a tweet that was condemned by Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.
“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating,” tweeted Carnegie Mellon University professor Uju Anya.
Anya specializes in “critical applied linguistics, critical sociolinguistics, and critical discourse studies examining race, gender, sexual, and social class identities in new language learning through the multilingual journeys of African American students,” according to her bio on CMU’s website.
The tweet drew a barrage of outrage, and was eventually removed for violating Twitter’s rules.
Mediaite reached out to Twitter for comment.
Before the tweet was removed, it earned a rebuke from one of the world’s richest people.
“This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow,” Bezos tweeted.
This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow. https://t.co/2zoi6CdFMq
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) September 8, 2022
Anya, who was born in Nigeria to a Nigerian father and a mother from Trinidad and Tobago, which were both once under British colonial rule, responded to Bezos.
“May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonizers,” she wrote.
Otoro gba gbue gi.
May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonizers.
— Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) September 8, 2022
Carnegie Mellon University also issued a statement condemning its professor’s tweet.
A statement regarding recent social media posts by Uju Anya. pic.twitter.com/NinpPa4rZg
— Carnegie Mellon University (@CarnegieMellon) September 8, 2022
Anya, meanwhile, doubled down.
“If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star,” she wrote.
If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.
— Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) September 8, 2022
The queen died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at the age of 96. Her oldest son, Charles, 73, is now King Charles III.
