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...They should be tarred and feathered, ridden out of town on a rail and removed from the academy. Their comments were despicable. I suspect they were also slanderous, but we'll hear more about that later. ....,"

Good Lord. THAT is the offensive remark?
And he apologized for it?
My God....he folded.

And then we are surprised why nobody from Duke is defending the players. Of course they are scared. Freedom of speech only goes one way, or so it seems.

http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2006/10/25/Letters/insensitive.Language.Unintentional-2400648.shtml?norewrite200610251241&sourcedomain=www.dukechronicle.com

Letters
10/25/06
'Insensitive' language unintentional

Steven Baldwin
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An editorial that I wrote appeared in The Chronicle Tuesday that was critical of the way the lacrosse incident has been handled by the Duke administration. Although my position is unchanged, I now realize that some of the language I used in the editorial was insensitive and inappropriate. I truly regret that my words have caused pain for some members of our community.

In particular, in the next-to-last paragraph of the editorial I used some terms that I have now learned have racial connotations for some. I certainly did not intend them that way. I grew up in the western U.S. and, quite frankly, associate the terms I used with the western frontier of the late 1800s. I saw a lot of cowboy movies as a kid.

I deeply regret that what for me is a totally non-racial issue has assumed that character. I wish I had used other language; I wish I had bounced a draft of the document off someone who might have steered me straight. While there is room for disagreement on the lacrosse issue, there is no disagreement on the importance of providing a welcoming environment for all people who study, learn and work at Duke. I have spent much of my career advocating for diversity at Duke by supporting the hiring of minority faculty and the recruitment of minority students.

I am very sorry that my naivety has offended any members of the Duke community. That was entirely unintentional and I should have been more careful in my selection of words.

Steven Baldwin

Professor, chemistry department

Tarred and feathered has connotations of lynching? I have never heard that before in my life.

I don't think he folded. He stands by his position. He just seemed to want to say that he had no idea those words would be offensive.

Victimhood on full display. It's a fricking metaphor and figure of speech. Note below how little reference it's given with respect to it's use on blacks. Blacks were also lynched, horse whipped, etc. In other words, all traditional forms of punishment have been applied across the board but black people "own" them all as a symbol of oppression. I guess we need to eliminate all those other "punishment" figures of speech as well.

Next time someone speaks of an individual being "crucified", I expect Christians to loudly complain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_and_feather

Tarring and feathering is a physical punishment, at least as old as the Crusades, used to enforce formal justice in feudal Europe and informal justice in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance (compare Lynch law).

[big snip - most of article]

Also in the early 20th century many African Americans were subjected to this treatment as a form of punishment, often for unjust and circumstantial reasons.( this is and unreferenced assertions and should be checked)

Metaphorical uses

The image of the tarred-and-feathered outlaw is so vivid that the expression remains a metaphor for a humiliating public castigation, many years after the practice disappeared. An example (in a story serial in a web forum) is: "The last episode was meant to be a cliffhanger, but readers' comments showed that they would tar and feather me if I did not quickly rescue the hero and show what happened next.".

Ironically, we are no longer allowed to "go on a crusade" because it might offend Islam.