The topic of giving descendants of slaves reparations has always been a touchy subject. The controversial topic was brought out in full force at the University this weekend.

On Friday and Saturday the University hosted a conference called the Moral Legacy of Slavery: Repairing Injustice. Professors from universities across the nation came to give their opinions on this controversial issue.

The conference was held in the McFall Center Conference room from 9 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Many students and faculty members attended to get a better understanding of what exactly can be and has been done to discuss and remember slavery.

Robert Fullinwider from the University of Maryland gave one of the most controversial presentations titled, Slavery, Reparations, and Moral Clarity.

“Citizens today disagree about the moral issues of slavery, nobody will say it was a good thing, but people disagree about the implications,” Fullinwider said. “If everyone was wealthy, reparations would not matter, but this is obviously not the case.”

To help the crowd better understand what reparations are, he gave an example: “If a postal truck dents your fender, the government pays.”

What this means is descendants of people who were subject to racial indecency would be compensated for their hardships — hence repairing what was done in the past.

Most everyone at the conference said there should be something done to fix slavery’s effects on descendants of slaves. But exactly what should be done was heavily debated.

Some students from the University have differing opinions on both what actually happened and on how we should handle slavery’s effects today.

Mike Hanhold, junior, said he has studied slavery for a while and believes it was necessary.

“If you don’t condone it, it is like denying a part of everyone’s history; blacks and whites,” Hanhold said. “I never really embraced slavery, but as I have studied it more, I have noticed it was something that needed to happen. Everyone now takes the stance that it wasn’t justified and was wrong, but if it didn’t happen, America would have been another England.”

Hanhold also has a particular view on the reparations: “There should not be reparations for slavery. If we did, then you would have to reparate every immigrant and slave and voluntary and involuntary person to the United States,” Hanhold said. “It’s like saying my Italian ancestors struggled a lot, so because of this, give me some money also. The simple fact that people want money for others’ hardships is ridiculous.”

Mike Detling, sophomore, agreed with Hanhold’s idea that that there should be no reparations but that something should be done.

“Slavery is probably one of the darkest times in American history, it is something many people should have been ashamed of but no one was,” Detling said. “There is no way you can truly repair what was done, so I think we just need to recognize how horrible and wrong it really was.”

As far as the morality of slavery, both Hanhold and Detling agree that it’s never morally right, and that recognizing our past mistakes is the best way to solve the problem.