A Pennsylvania university has issued a statement after one of its professors tweeted that she wished Queen Elizabeth II "excruciating" pain prior to the monarch's death.
On Thursday, September 8, Buckingham Palace released a statement that Queen Elizabeth II was under "medical supervision" after her doctors had become concerned with her health.
Roughly six hours later, it was announced that Her Majesty had passed away peacefully at the royal estate of Balmoral in Scotland.
However, while the nation - and the world - braced itself for the death of the Queen, Dr. Uju Anya, professor of linguistics and race at Carnegie Mellon University, tweeted her disdain for the monarch.
Dr. Anya shared a post on her social media page - which has since been removed by Twitter for violating community guidelines - which read: "I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating."
The tweet was posted roughly one hour before news of Queen Elizabeth II's death was shared.
Explaining her reasoning behind her initial tweet, Dr. Anya tweeted shortly after: "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."
The tweet was met with some support, but also strong backlash, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos writing in response: "This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow."
Now, representatives for Carnegie Mellon University have responded to Dr. Anya's tweet, writing in a statement: "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."
Once again, the response was mixed, with some Twitter users feeling that the university should have shown more support for their faculty member and her expression of free speech.
"This is cowardly. You must understand the power dynamics at play here, and yet you set up one of your Black woman professors as a target for harassment for speaking on her and her family’s loved experience," Dr. Uché Blackstock responded.
However, others argued that Dr. Anya should lose her job for the comments, with one Twitter user arguing: "I’m sorry but this lady, through her profile and position, represents your university and whilst freedom of speech is important, spreading hate is inexcusable. You quite rightly don’t condone these words and as such those spouting them should have no place at your institution."
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