Anya said Bezos singled her out for criticism because he’s a small and petty man.
Nigeria-born American professor, Uju Anya, has accused the third richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, of inciting violence against her.
How it started: Anya, who is an associate professor of second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University, had expressed a controversial view about the Queen’s death on social media.
Taking to her Twitter page hours before the Queen’s death was announced on Thursday, September 8, 2022, Anya said, “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.”
Things got heated: The post elicited mixed reactions online and Bezos also had something to say about it.
Quoting Anya’s post, he said, “This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow.”
She had earlier replied to Bezos on Twitter, writing, “May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonisers.”
Anya doubled down: Unfazed by the mounting criticisms her post had attracted, the professor followed up with a stream of invective on the Queen’s memory in her subsequent tweets.
In one of those tweets, Anya referenced the purported role the British Empire under Elizabeth played in supplying the Nigerian Government weapons during the Biafran War between 1967-1970.
“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,” she wrote, following the announcement of the Queen’s death.
Anya comes for Bezos again: In a recent interview with foreign-based news platform, The CUT, the Professor accused Bezos of inciting violence against her by singling her out from multitude of people that expressed delight over the Queen’s death.
She described the influential businessman’s action as misogynistic and racist, adding that Bezos has always been a petty and small man.
Anya’s words: “Jeff Bezos incited violence against me. He rarely tweets in his own voice, but he took the time to single me out when literally half the planet rejoiced over the news. I can’t ignore the racism and misogyny — the emails I’ve been getting all start with the N-word, bitch, genetically inferior, all kinds of things. I don’t open them, but I see the subject lines.
“There’s also a reason I caught his attention. I recently met Chris Smalls, the young Black man who unionised at Amazon, at an event. I took a picture with him and tweeted it, praising him and saying, “Extraordinary brilliant and powerful young man who unionized Amazon. We all know Bezos is a small and petty man.”
