Professor wished for queen’s death to be ‘excruciating,’ drawing ire from university

Hours before Queen Elizabeth II died after 70 years reigning over the United Kingdom, a professor in Pennsylvania wished her an “excruciating” death.

“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying,” tweeted Uju Anya, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. “May her pain be excruciating.”

While millions mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth II, others like Anya treated news of her passing with a different reaction. Many people from countries in Africa and the Caribbean expressed negative feelings toward the queen, citing the British empire colonizing countries with violence.

Maya Jasanoff, a Harvard University history professor, wrote in The New York Times that “we may never learn what the queen did or did not know about the crimes committed in her name.”

Anya’s mother was born in Trinidad and her father is from Nigeria, according to NBC News. She told the publication her view on the queen was largely shaped by the “suffering of her parents” during the Nigerian Civil War, which came after the country was decolonized.

“In addition to the colonization on the side of Nigeria, there’s also the human enslavement in the Caribbean,” she told NBC News. “So there’s a direct lineage that I have to not just people who were colonized, but also people who were enslaved by the British.”

Zoé Samudzi, an assistant professor of photography at the Rhode Island School of Design, had a similar feeling as Anya. She said in a tweet before Queen Elizabeth’s death that she would “dance on the graves of every member of the royal family if given the opportunity, especially hers.”

Twitter deleted the post from Anya, but she doubled down in several subsequent tweets.

“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,” Anya said after the queen died.

Many Twitter users, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, criticized the comments by Anya, who is an associate professor of second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon.

Carnegie Mellon later condemned Anya’s post, but did not say if the professor will face any disciplinary action.

“We do not condone the offensive and objectionable messages posted by Uju Anya today on her personal social media account,” the statement from the university read. “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.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression urged the university to “resist public pressure” and not punish Anya for her remarks.

“Anya’s speech is clearly protected by CMU’s free expression promises, which are in line with the First Amendment,” the foundation said. “CMU may, of course, exercise its own expressive right to criticize Anya’s speech — as it has done. However, it may not investigate or punish Anya for simply expressing her opinion.”

Anya’s remarks have also been met with support, including from one Twitter user who said she is “saying everything you are scared to say.”

What happens after the Queen’s death? What to know about the line to the British throne

Who were the longest living British monarchs? What to know after Queen Elizabeth’s death

‘A day of great loss.’ World reacts to death of Queen Elizabeth II