Professor of Applied Linguistics, Critical Sociolinguistics and Critical Discourse Studies at Carnegie Mellon Uju Anya was at the center of a Twitter controversy after making a tweet about recently passed Queen Elizabeth II just before her death.
Anya posted a comment on Twitter on September 8, hoping that the late queen was dying in “excruciating” pain. The tweet sparked a backlash from her University of employment and the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.
The post that started it all read, “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.”
It appears that Twitter has deleted this tweet by Uju Anya for violating the Twitter rules. pic.twitter.com/bjtW6RtodK
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) September 8, 2022
Carnegie Mellon criticized Nigerian Anya’s allegedly insensitive language as offensive, acknowledging that they treasured free expression but didn’t condone her post. “We do not condone the offensive and objectionable messages posted by Uju 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.”
A statement regarding recent social media posts by Uju Anya. pic.twitter.com/NinpPa4rZg
— Carnegie Mellon University (@CarnegieMellon) September 8, 2022
Anya quickly posted a response to her employer’s opinion of her statement, responding with, “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.”
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 third richest man in the world, CEO Jeff Bezos, also jumped on the bandwagon, commenting that Anya was in a professor position and using language like she was. Bezos wrote, “This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow.”
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 offered a rebuttal to the billionaire, “Otoro gba gbue gi. [may you die of the uncontrollable running stomach] May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonizers.”
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
Anya has previously found herself in the hot seat for her questionable language. Two years ago, she was the subject of a Change.org petition to be reviewed and disciplined after she disparaged African Americans by calling them “akata,” an ethnic slur Meaning ancestors of slaves or “cotton pickers,” akin to the term “wild animals” according to the petition. She consistently used the word in multiple tweets despite being a professor of linguistics and aware of the impact of the term.
