"Never make a joke."
Really?
Actually, there are some things you don't joke about, ie: sexual assault, the handicapped, the Holocaust, to name a few.
Getting "the lash," part of the heinous history of slavery, sure seems to fit into this category.
U of T has over-reacted, and the esteemed professor should not have resigned. He made a stupid mistake; we all do sometimes.
But it is mind-boggling -- and revealing-- that commenters here are saying: "what's the problem, what's wrong with what he said?"
A textbook example of "white privilege." They just don't get it.