by Wendy Medina

September 10, 2022

Carnegie Mellon Professor Who Hoped Queen’s Death Was ‘Excruciating’ Called Out by University, Jeff Bezos

Professor of Pittsburgh‘s Carnegie Mellon, Uju Anya, has been the subject of controversy following a tweet she made after news broke of Queen Elizabeth II’s worsening condition before her death on Thursday. The educator wrote she hoped the late monarch died by “excruciating” pain, drawing criticism from the prestigious institution and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. 

At the announcement near her death on Sept. 8, Anya took to Twitter and wrote: “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.” 

Twitter has since removed the post for violating its community guidelines.

Carnegie Mellon caught wind of the tweet after it went viral, responding to their associate professor with criticism of their own, alleging Anya’s opinion on the matter was “offensive and objectionable” and that she violated “standards of discourse we seek to foster.”

“Free expression is core to the mission of higher education,” wrote the university in a statement, “however, the views she shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution.”

The professor of modern languages, who is from Nigeria, rebuttled with more insight on her stance: “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.”

Somehow Bezos came across the tweet, and condemned Anya, spurring even more backlash after being retweeted by the billionaire CEO. 

“This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow,” wrote Bezos.

The professor was undeterred and clapped back, “May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonizers.”

According to Anya’s bio, she teaches critical applied linguistics, critical sociolinguistics, and critical discourse studies.


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