Carnegie Mellon University says it is reviewing a series of hostile social media posts by one of its professors and has promised “swift action” — a move that follows complaints from colleagues who said the posts left them worried about their own safety, according to The Daily Wire.
Dr. Uju Anya, who is currently on voluntary professional leave from the university and is not teaching courses this academic year, has drawn national attention after a weekend exchange on X escalated into a wider examination of her posting history.
In a Saturday statement, the Pittsburgh school said it was taking the matter seriously. “We are deeply concerned by recent hostile and threatening social media posts by Dr. Anya and are reviewing this matter closely,” the university said. Officials added that the posts “incorrectly imply our university’s endorsement and are contrary to our community standards and values as well as our commitment to fostering a safe, respectful and welcoming campus community.”
How the exchange escalated
The spark came from an old post. In February 2021, following the death of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, Anya wrote that he had “finally did something positive in life by dropping dead,” calling it good riddance. That post resurfaced Friday when a user replied, asking why she seemed to celebrate only the deaths of white people.
Anya’s response — “Die first, white man, then ask yourself why I’m dancing” — rapidly spread across the platform, eventually reaching X owner Elon Musk, who amplified it with the comment that she was “a real professor at Carnegie Mellon University.”
As criticism mounted, Anya pushed back at individual users while asserting that her employer stood behind her. She said the university had aggressively recruited her away from a previous job with a large salary and strong benefits, and invited detractors to complain to the school and see whether anyone picked up the phone. To another critic she wrote, “Keep crying, loser,” and claimed her department chair had texted to say staff were discarding the incoming emails.
A broader review of past posts
Once Musk weighed in, users began combing through Anya’s timeline and circulating older posts that had drawn controversy before. Among them was a 2022 message posted as Queen Elizabeth II was dying, in which Anya described the monarch as the head of a “thieving raping genocidal empire” and wished her excruciating pain.
She also marked the one-year anniversary of the killing of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk with a post saying, “May he rot in piss,” and shared video of students dancing in what appeared to be a reenactment of his murder.
Rather than walk anything back, Anya framed the ensuing storm as an attack on her. She said she had spent a day facing violent threats, racist abuse, and harassment — which she attributed to what she called fascist white supremacist MAGA trolls — and that she had been doxxed. She made clear she had no intention of softening her earlier remarks, stating that she meant every word and would neither retract nor apologize.
Carnegie Mellon’s statement did not specify what form the promised action might take, and it was not immediately clear whether the review could affect Anya’s position at the university. A university spokesperson did not provide further detail beyond the Saturday statement.
The episode lands amid a broader national argument over the boundaries of faculty speech, particularly when instructors’ personal political commentary collides with institutional reputations. Universities have faced pressure from donors, alumni, lawmakers, and students to act when professors’ online statements are seen as threatening or hostile — and counterpressure from free-expression advocates who warn that punishing speech can chill academic inquiry.
For now, Anya remains on leave, and the university says its review is ongoing. The professor’s own account suggests she expects to keep her position, telling critics that the school knows exactly what it hired. Whether Carnegie Mellon agrees is the question its statement left open.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/die-first-white-man-professor-lands-in-hot-water-over-racist-social-media-posts