Jeff Bezos slams professor for wishing Queen Elizabeth an ‘excruciating’ death

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has slammed an academic’s tweets that wished “excruciating” pain against the Queen, with Twitter also taking action.

A university professor wished Queen Elizabeth II an “excruciating” death — and she was promptly slammed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying,” Uju Anya, an associate professor of second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote in a tweet on Thursday. “May her pain be excruciating.”

The world’s third-richest man then quoted Anya’s tweet and wrote: “This is someone supposedly working to make the world better?” the New York Post reported.

“I don’t think so,” Bezos added. “Wow.”

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Jeff Bezos took offence with Prof Anya’s tweet. Picture: Carnegie Mellon University.

The back-and-forth came as the 96-year-old monarch was under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, and less than an hour before Buckingham Palace officially announced that Queen Elizabeth had died at 96.

In follow-ups to her initial post elsewhere, the Carnegie Mellon professor defended her tweet in explicit terms.

After one Twitter user wrote “Ewww you stink,” Prof Anya responded: “You mean like your p-ssy?”

Prof Anya’s tweet was removed by Twitter for violating the platform’s rules.

Prof Anya also doubled down in a response to Bezos posted just minutes after Elizabeth’s death was confirmed, writing: “May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonisers.”

Twitter later took down Prof Anya’s initial tweet for violating its rules, which bar “wishing or hoping that someone experiences physical harm.”

Prof Anya and Carnegie Mellon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

When another user asked why she would wish Elizabeth dead, the professor wrote: “I’m not wishing her dead. She’s dying already. I’m wishing her an agonisingly painful death like the one she caused for millions of people.”

“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,” Prof Anya added.

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

According to an interview with Prof Anya that Carnegie Mellon published in January, the linguistics professor was born in Nigeria, a British colony until 1960. She moved to the US when she was 10 and attended Dartmouth College, Brown University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Because of systemic exclusion, my voice is unique and foundational in the field,” Prof Anya said in the Carnegie Mellon interview. “I am the main scholar looking at race and experiences of Blackness in language learning and one of the few who examine language education from a social justice perspective.”

Jeff Bezos’ criticised the Carnegie Mellon professor’s tweets. Picture: Eric Baradat/ AFP.

Bezos did not immediately respond to Prof Anya’s reply, instead posting a separate tweet to memorialise the Queen, writing, “I can think of no one who better personified duty. My deepest condolences to all the Brits mourning her passing today.”

Bezos’ defence of the Queen followed a July visit he paid to Buckingham Palace, where the Sun reported he and his family admired the royal family’s collection of jewels and artwork.

“The Bezos visit is already jokingly being nicknamed a ‘shopping trip’ by Palace staff,” a Buckingham Palace source dished to the newspaper. “He showed a particular interest in the Throne Room and Ballroom.”

I can think of no one who better personified duty. My deepest condolences to all the Brits mourning her passing today. https://t.co/rCkagaglET

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) September 8, 2022

Bezos did not meet with members of the royal family, instead dining with Tom Cruise at a restaurant in the Mayfair neighbourhood after his visit, according to the Sun.

The Washington Post owner has become more active on Twitter in recent months, using the site to take jabs at the Biden Administration and Elon Musk, as well as reminisce about his first job at McDonalds.

This post originally appeared on the New York Post and has been republished with permission

Originally published as Jeff Bezos slams professor for wishing Queen Elizabeth an ‘excruciating’ death