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Sunday, May 10, 2026
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Carnegie Mellon Professor Posts 'Die First, White Man' — Her Department Chair Panics and Deletes His Own Account

Uju Anya, a Nigerian-born associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University who earns over $120,000 a year researching "Blackness in multilingualism," posted this on X around the anniversary of September 11: "Die first, white man, then ask yourself why I'm dancing." Her department chair, Rémi A. van Compernolle, responded to the backlash by deleting his own X account.

Not hers. His.

Anya's post circulated fast with users tagging her employer, Carnegie Mellon, directly. The university initially said nothing. Then Carnegie Mellon released a statement saying it was "deeply concerned" by what it called "hostile and threatening" posts that were "contrary to our community standards and values." Standard institutional language — concerned, not acting.

Then someone started looking at van Compernolle's account. Old posts surfaced in which the department chair had written about "right wing white folks" in terms that didn't exactly scream academic neutrality. Rather than explain or defend those posts, van Compernolle deleted his entire X account.

Anya noticed. And bragged about it. She boasted that her department chair had been dismissing complaints about her, throwing emails in the trash. The chair's retreat wasn't embarrassing to her — it was a trophy. She got her own boss to flee a public platform, and she wanted everyone to know it.

This is not Anya's first appearance in the national spotlight. In 2022, when Queen Elizabeth II was dying, Anya posted: "I heard the chief monarch of a thieving and raping genocidal empire is finally dying." That post drew a direct response from Elon Musk. Carnegie Mellon issued a statement then, too. She kept her job.

The university's latest statement confirmed that "Dr. Uju Anya is currently on voluntary professional leave" and is "not teaching courses." Voluntary. Professional. Leave. She chose to take time off. The university chose to let her choose. Senator Mike Lee responded by calling for Carnegie Mellon to be defunded.

Anya herself offered this explanation of her posting style to Carnegie Mellon: "I hurl many rude, expletive-laden missives on my personal social media." That's not a defense. That's a job description she wrote for herself and dared the university to do something about it. They didn't.

The two-tier system here isn't subtle. A white professor at any American university who posted "Die first, Black man" would not be on voluntary professional leave. That professor would be in a cab heading home with a cardboard box, and the university president would be holding a press conference before lunch. The faculty senate would draft a resolution. The DEI office would announce a healing circle. Local news would lead with it for a week.

Anya posts it, takes a voluntary vacation, and watches her chair delete his account in a panic.

Carnegie Mellon's endowment sits north of $11 billion. Their tuition runs over $62,000 a year. Parents write those checks trusting that the institution maintains some baseline standard for the people it puts in front of students. The standard, as it turns out, is: post whatever you want, and if it gets bad enough, we'll let you take some time off. Voluntarily.

Van Compernolle's deleted account is the most honest thing to come out of this story. He looked at his own posts, looked at the climate his department created, and decided the safest move was to stop existing online entirely. When leadership's best play is to disappear, the faculty lounge has a problem that one more statement about "community values" isn't going to fix.

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