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Topics: The Queen, Jeff Bezos, News, Twitter
Shola Lee
Topics: The Queen, Jeff Bezos, News, Twitter
Jeff Bezos has slammed a university professor that said she hoped Queen Elizabeth II's death was 'excruciating'.
The comments came yesterday, 8 September, from Dr. Uju Anya, professor of linguistics and race at Carnegie Mellon University, as the monarch was in her final hours before passing away aged 96.
Dr. Anya's tweets have since been removed for violating Twitter rules, but Jeff Bezos was quick to call her out.
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Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle yesterday, surrounded by her children.
As tributes poured in for the country's longest reigning monarch, the professor had a very different message.
Dr. Anya's first tweet read: "I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating."
This was then removed by Twitter for violating community guidelines, but before it was taken down Bezos responded, saying: "This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow."
The professor then responded to Bezos, saying: "May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonizers."
Dr. Anya then followed up her initial tweet by saying: "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."
Jeff Bezos isn't the only person that called out the university professor. Now, there's a change.org petition against her after she allegedly used an ethnic slur in her tweets.
The petition, started by Foundational Black American students, says: "Dr. Uju Anya can not be allowed to use the platform of Carnegie Mellon University Department of Modern Languages to further promote Systematic Racism through her blatant use of Ethnic Slurs on Social Media when referring to Foundational Black Americans."
The petition went on to add: "This is a step backward in our fight to destroy Systematic Racism and Discrimination for all people if institutions allow professors to become comfortable with using language as a weapon against people of color by people of color."
Currently, the petition has 1,007 signatures.
Meanwhile, following the backlash, the university where she is employed issued a statement, saying: "We do not condone the offensive and objectionable messages posted by Uku Anya today on her personal social media account.
“Free expression is core to the mission of higher education, however, the views she shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standards of discourse we seek to foster.”
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