Some quick background, I go to possibly the whitest college on the planet. This college in an attempt to recruit more domestic minority students often over-represents these students in publication. As such recently during a college function, the point of which is making fun of the things the college does, made fun of this practice, by proposing instant diversity and students donning facepaint. Now this was related by some people, who were deeply offended, to
blackface. The situation has been at length discussed and it was agreed the mimicry of blackface was not at all the intent of their skit, but some people still are offended and feel they are owed an apology.
I use this story as a background to come by this question, which is not specifically related to this incident. I have my own thoughts, but I don't want to skew the thread in any one direction, so they will wait till later. So my question is simply this:
If someone is offended by something you do, but their offense is at the result of thier misunderstanding, do you still owe this person an apology?