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Fury has erupted after a professor who said she wished the Queen was in “excruciating pain” before her death tweeted that her job is not in danger following the comments. Carnegie Mellon professor Uju Anya, made the comments after learning of the Queen’s dire health on Thursday, just hours before the 96-year-old monarch died. However, on Monday, she tweeted: “I am not in battle with Carnegie Mellon University. As the letters of support from the students, faculty, staff, and others in my university community clearly show, I am wanted and I belong here.” Reacting to this, Nile Gardiner, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher called Dr Anya “full of hate”. He tweeted: “The woke far Left are full of hate, even attacking a beautiful-hearted 96-year-old Queen who is loved all over the world, and lived a life of incredible service and dedication.”
As the world was waiting nervously for an update on the Queen’s health on Thursday, Dr Anya tweeted: “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.”
Adding to this, in a separate tweet the professor said: “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.”
Dr Anya was widely criticised for her tweets, which were removed by Twitter.
However, following the backlash, the professor told NBC that her mother is from Trinidad and her father is from Nigeria.
Describing herself as a “child of colonialism” she said her perspective on the Monarchy was shaped by the civil war in her father’s country of origin.
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“Rebuilding still hasn’t finished today”, she told the outlet, adding that the late Queen represented “the cult of white womanhood.”
She continued: “There’s this notion that she was this little-old-lady grandma type with her little hats and her purses and little dogs and everything as if she inhabited this place or this space in the imaginary, this public image, as someone who didn’t have a hand in the bloodshed of her Crown.”
Carnegie Mellon University sought to distance itself from Dr Anya’s tweets calling them “offensive and objectionable”.
However, despite the backlash, university students have rushed to defend the professor.
In a letter the students said: “Public condemnation of her tweet provides no institutional protection from violence and places her in a precarious position, ignoring a long history of institutional racism and colonialism.
“Rejecting calls for ‘civility’ that are frequently leveraged against the marginalized to silence dissent, we express our solidarity with Dr Anya and reject the tone-policing of those with legitimate grievances.”
Dr Anya thanked her supporters, stating: “You showed me something very important: I have people.”
Further defending her position, she told New York magazine The Cut: “Even the crowns she wears are looted, plundered from the lands they exploited and extracted from. The entire treasury is a legacy of thievery that was achieved by murder, by enslavement, and it didn’t stop after independence.”
Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday, September 13, ending her 70-year reign.
Announcing her death, Buckingham Palace said: “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”
Following her death, her eldest son Charles immediately became King.
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The UK is now in a period of mourning, which will end on September 19, the day of the Queen’s funeral.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Queen’s coffin will be moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminister Hall in a procession that will be led by King Charles, with Princes Harry and William following behind.
Once the coffin has arrived at Westminster Hall, the public will be allowed to view the Queen as she lies in state until 6:30 am on the day of the funeral.
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