Professor Priyamvada Gopal, a fellow of Churchill College, sparked a tremendous backlash after she posted the tweet saying: "I’ll say it again. White Lives Don't Matter. As white lives."
Since posting, the professor has received threats and criticisms, while a petition was launched demanding that she be fired by Cambridge University. The petition has so far gained more than 13,000 signatures and it is still increasing.
However, instead of dealing harshly to an expression of racist hatred, the Cambridge University promoted Gopal to full Professorship in the English department.
In a statement, Cambridge University said: "The university defends the right of its academics to express their own lawful opinions, which others might find controversial.
"[It] deplores in the strongest terms abuse and personal attacks. These attacks are totally unacceptable and must cease."
This sentiment by the university is onsistent with their action to remove Noah Carl last year from a research position at St Edmund’s college over links with far right groups.
St. Edmund’s College announced in 2019 that it had terminated Carl after being named as the college’s Toby Jackman Newton Trust junior research fellow.
Carl's earlier appointment prompted complaints from students and staff that his writings on race and intelligence helped "legitimise racist stereotypes", with more than 1,000 people signing an open letter attacking Carl’s publications.
A special investigation panel appointed by the college upheld the complaints and said Carl "had put a body of work into the public domain that did not comply with established criteria for research ethics and integrity".
Matthew Bullock, the master of St. Edmund’s, said in a statement: "The panel found that in the course of pursuing this problematic work, Dr Carl had collaborated with a number of individuals who were known to hold extremist views.
"There was a serious risk that Dr Carl’s appointment could lead, directly or indirectly, to the college being used as a platform to promote views that could incite racial or religious hatred, and bring the college into disrepute."
A second investigation into Carl’s recruitment, led by Patrick Elias, a retired court of appeal judge, found no failings in the college’s procedure but noted "concerns about Dr. Carl only came to light after the recruitment process was concluded".