In an op-ed Thursday following Queen Elizabeth II’s passing, the far-Left New York Times predictably advised people not to “romanticize” her reign, citing Britain’s past colonialism.

Written by Harvard professor (is anyone surprised it was written by a multi-culturalist academic?) Maya Jasanoff, the article demonizes the queen as a relic of a racist era in which she oversaw the dissolution of the British Empire.

“She has been a fixture of stability, and her death in already turbulent times will send ripples of sadness around the world,” writes Jasanoff. “But we should not romanticize her era.”

Saying the queen put a “stolid traditionalist front over decades of violent upheaval,” Jasanoff then alleges that the queen’s image essentially helped to “obscure a bloody history of decolonization” that has yet to be acknowledged and apologized for.

“She was, of course, a white face on all the coins, notes and stamps circulated in a rapidly diversifying nation: From perhaps one person of color in 200 Britons at her accession, the 2011 census counted one in seven,” she later suggests.

“The new king now has an opportunity to make a real historical impact by scaling back royal pomp and updating Britain’s monarchy to be more like those of Scandinavia. That would be an end to celebrate,” she concludes.

The New York Times should be ashamed for publishing such a mendacious piece, but of course it won’t be. Its long history of whitewashing the horrors of communism is evidence of that.