Be honest with what the situation is. This is completely about whether he used language that some people found offensive. They have the right to be offended, have the right to ask for an apology, and have the right to ask the university to demand an apology. No one is threatening death or bodily harm. It’s not a witch hunt.

shadowgovt phrased it well lower in the comment section:

> Honestly, Yale's administration is trying to help.

> This individual's major risk surface isn't what Yale will do to him... It's that his peers have filed his name away in their personal Rolodex-analog as "Someone very, very clueless about tone and reading a room." i.e. "Someone I don't want as partner in my law firm."

He’s certainly free to do that and that seems to be what ultimately happened. That being said, he’s free to experience the social consequences of showing himself to be unable or unwilling to read a room.

You can demand anything at any time. Doesn't mean you're getting one. He said something that people took offense to. They demanded an apology. He didn't apologize. I'm not sure why this necessitated a blog article, much less one circulated on Hacker News.

For what it's worth, I'm a white guy who grew up in poverty and have seen more than one trap house. I'm uncomfortable about the use of trap house here, because it's ridiculous. Yale Law School is one of the most privileged places in the US. It demeans the experiences of people who have been subjected to actual poverty and drug-infested areas to equate anything at Yale with a trap house.

They are as free to be offended or request an appology as the author is to say what they like. Everyone is quite litterally free.

Everyone is also free to judge these people on their actions.

From the ancient human custom of group shunning to the modern dragging, when a person is outside the good graces of their community, they are under threat.

When lots of people are offended, they have the power to refrain from interacting with an individual. And we are social creatures.

Practically speaking, one's power to demand an apology is proportional to what happens to the demandee if you decide they aren't worth interacting with in the future. If you're a social, political, or corporate leader, or a member of a union (formal or informal / social), it can be quite a lot of power.