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Prior to the Queen Elizabeth's passing on Thursday, Carnegie Mellon professor Uju Anya wished Queen Elizabeth II "excruciating" pain, drawing ire from the Pittsburgh school and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
The tweet, which was removed by Twitter for violating its standards, wrote:
“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.”
Anya, who is from Nigeria, previously stated that she would stand by her comments. Nigeria was ruled by the British until 1960. She claimed that the queen was in charge of a government "that murdered and exiled half my family."
Anya is an associate professor of modern languages at Carnegie Mellon, where she has been criticized for sending "offensive and objectionable messages" and for flouting the "standards of discourse we seek to foster."
Carnegie Mellon issued a statement, posting it to their Twitter:
\u201cA statement regarding recent social media posts by Uju Anya.\u201d— Carnegie Mellon University (@Carnegie Mellon University) 1662669582
But why was Jeff Bezos involved? Apparently Carnegie Mellon received a large grant from the tech company to fund a computer science academy—a grant worth $2 million USD. Bezos' tweet referencing Anya's now-deleted tweet kicked off the scuffle.
\u201cThis is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don\u2019t think so. Wow.\u201d— Jeff Bezos (@Jeff Bezos) 1662655895
\u201cContext:\u201d— Micah Bateman \ud83c\udfa9 (@Micah Bateman \ud83c\udfa9) 1662686119
As this involved a monarch, a professor saying things and being censored by their university, and Jeff Bezos, the opinions on Twitter were flying.
Many people agreed that the comment was in poor taste, but not that it violated Twitter's content standards or deserved to be pulled down.
\u201c@yashar As ugly as the sentiment was, I think it was wrong of Twitter to do that.\u201d— Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18) 1662675152
\u201c@yashar Why was it deleted?\n\nIt's gross and I disagree with her, but she should be able to share her opinion whether I/we like it or not.\u201d— Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18) 1662675152
Others got into arguments about the lasting legacy of the British empire, colonization that occurred during the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, arguing that Anya's comments were valid, coming from a person with her background, or not, as she was merely a mostly-symbolic monarch.
\u201cReminder that Queen Elizabeth is not a remnant of colonial times. She was an active participant in colonialism. She actively tried to stop independence movements & she tried to keep newly independent colonies from leaving the commonwealth. The evil she did was enough\u201d— Nsafoa's Feminist Duck \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@Nsafoa's Feminist Duck \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08) 1662648391
\u201cHolding Queen Elizabeth personally responsible for colonialism when her reign oversaw basically the entirely of decolonization is\u2026 certainly a take.\u201d— Peter Wolf (@Peter Wolf) 1662655379
Some pointed out the double standard of the leaving up the anti-Monarchy celebrations of the queen's death by (mostly white) Irish citizens, while singling out this one Nigerian professor for censure.
\u201c@yashar Thousands of white people, esp Irish, echoing similar sentiments with even stronger language, and for very good reason. But congrats to Jeff bezos and you for singling out a black woman and sending racist trolls her way.\u201d— Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18) 1662675152
\u201cWeird how this site is full of people mocking the queen's death including video of an Irish soccer stadium chanting "Lizzie's in a box" yet the only person singled out for criticism and outrage was a black female professor whose family was lost to a British sponsored genocide.\u201d— Alejandra Caraballo (@Alejandra Caraballo) 1662727529
\u201c@yashar A different point of view. How about this one. https://t.co/uNDqEs02A5\u201d— Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18) 1662675152
Or even just tweets with more explicit violence that were not about a monarch.
\u201c@yashar We've been reading tweets like that or worse about Russia every day for the past 6 months. None of those is deleted "for violating the Twitter rules".\u201d— Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18) 1662675152
On Bezos' involvement, people were quick to point out the issues present in Carnegie Mellon's quick response to a large donor's criticism of one of their faculty members.
\u201cLike ofc there\u2019s no honor in higher ed capitalism, but my thinking even along those lines is that $2M is the least possible commitment from Amazon, and less than the career grant potential of the faculty member they just burned\u201d— Micah Bateman \ud83c\udfa9 (@Micah Bateman \ud83c\udfa9) 1662686119
People appeared torn between thinking the tweet in question was made in understandable outrage or was in terrible taste, but it seemed that no one appreciated how responsive the university was to Bezos, or the hypocrisy's in Twitter pulling this one tweet.
\u201c@tj_snell @yashar Wishing pain is against the rules and I am grateful for those rules. I think they should be enforced more consistently against certain parties and not at the whims of a billionaire (who causes more pain than the tweet even wished).\u201d— Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18) 1662675152
The debate continues over on Twitter, as many commenters can't resist the allure of a quagmire of opinions involving this many hot-button and outrage-inducing issues all at once.