Queen Elizabeth’s Death: Anger, Abuse Fills Social Media As Communities Revisit Old Wounds

The United Kingdom slipped into deep sorrow Thursday evening as its longest-reigning monarch died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. But it was just another day for certain communities who were affected by the royal family’s alleged racist past, and a huge wave of inappropriate jokes took over the internet in the aftermath of the Queen’s death.

Things got to a point where Twitter had to take down a comment posted by Uju Anya, a professor of linguistics and race at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating,” Anya reportedly wrote. “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 professor further added, “That wretched woman and her bloodthirsty throne have f—ing generations of my ancestors on both sides of the family, and she supervised a government that sponsored the genocide my parents and siblings survived. May she die in agony.”

The hatred against the royal family and the Queen herself had escalated several times in the past, including the time when there was no comment from the palace about the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. This was made worse by 2021’s tell-all Oprah interview featuring the Sussexes – Harry and Meghan – who claimed the palace was concerned about their then-unborn son Archie’s skin color.

The royal family’s racist past dates back to the 15th century when Queen Elizabeth I publicly supported a slave master who captured and sold 300 Africans in exchange for ginger, hides and sugar in 1562, reported Insider.

Then there was the two-century-long British rule in India. The country’s independence in 1947 was marred by violence as it was partitioned into two independent nations – India and Pakistan.

Lord Louis Mountbatten, a relative of the royal family, was in the position to mitigate the crisis, but he only made matters worse after being blinded by his own naval career advancement and impatience to get back to his home country. The country has been independent for 75 years but its hatred for the colonists has yet to die down.

As the long-standing monarch, the Queen acknowledged Britain’s bloodied exploitation of certain communities and countries, but never apologized for it. The royals have always received flak for their stand on the matter.

Needless to say, thousands of scathing remarks floated online as certain communities slipped into celebratory mode following the news of the queen’s death.

“Imagine telling Black twitter to be respectful of the death of the woman who inherited the legacy of an empire that contributed to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Please be fr,” one person wrote.

“Rest in hell Els #blacktwitter,” another tweet read.

“It’s also not true that only Black Twitter is celebrating her death. Irish, Indian and Scottish twitter all celebrating it. The only people mourning the death of the vile Queen Elizabeth II are the ones who along with their ancestors, benefitted from the vicious British Empire,” one user shared.