The death on September 8 of Queen Elizabeth II, 96, has aroused an outpouring of sympathy around the world.
Tributes pour in from everywhere for the monarch who had the longest reign in the history of the United Kingdom. Her reign lasted seventy years, since her accession to the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, in 1952.
She was a world figure, whose enduring presence had been reassuring the British since shortly after the end of the second World War. She has been through many crises and key moments in world history and British history.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon (AMZN), was one of the first CEOs to express his sadness and to offer his condolences to the British people.
Bezos Defends the Queen
"I can think of no one who better personified duty. My deepest condolences to all the Brits mourning her passing today," the billionaire posted on Twitter.
Earlier, Bezos had transformed into a defender of the Queen minutes before her death.
"I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying,” Dr. Uju Anya, an associate professor of second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote in a tweet on September 8 before the death of the Queen. "May her pain be excruciating.”
Bezos, who is increasingly present on Twitter, did not hesitate to respond.
"This is someone supposedly working to make the world better?" the billionaire quipped.
And then he slammed the professor: "I don’t think so. Wow."
Dr. Uju Anya's tweet was taken down by Twitter, which found it violated its content policy. But Bezos' defense of the Queen sparked a torrent of comments on the platform so "Bezos" started trending.
The professor then subsequently tried to defend her position.
"May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonizers," she replied to Bezos who didn't write back.
"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 added.
Bezos Slammed by Twitter Users
Dr. Uju Anya was born in Nigeria, in West Africa. The country is the most populous nation in Africa. It became independent from the United Kingdom on October 1, 1960. British settlers had arrived in this region in the 1850s.
She left Nigeria when she was 10 years old and earned degrees from prestigious universities including Dartmouth College and Brown University.
While there were user comments condemning Uju Anya's remarks, the majority of users lashed out at Bezos or defended the professor.
"I think @UjuAnya is misunderstood.vShe is referring to the British sponsored genocide in Nigeria in 1967," said one Twitter user. Britain backed the Nigerian government during the former colony's civil war against the breakaway state of Biafra.
"u and the queen would see eye to eye huh...all that exploiting others to enrich yourselves. sorry ur bestie is gone," added another user referring to Bezos.
"You know why you picked this tweet out of the crowd," said another user who retweeted a photo of the professor with Chris Smalls, an activist who led unionization efforts at an Amazon warehouse who is president of the Amazon Labor Union.
"Imagine how people will react when it’s your turn," said another user.
Dr. Uju Anya's tweets were disavowed by Carnegie Mellon University, which insisted that the university would not tolerate such comments and distanced themselves.
"We do not condone the offensive and objectionable messages posted by Uju Anya today on her personal social media account," the university said in a statement. " 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."
It is important to note that Amazon of which Bezos is still the executive chairman of the board, is a major donor to Carnegie Mellon University. The company pledged in December 2020 to donate $2 million to support Carnegie Mellon University's computer science academy for the next three years.
