Walter williams - Essay Example

26 July Critical Analysis of Walter Willliams’s Argument Passing the Senate Resolution 26 does not mean that the African Americans have to be compensated, and if by any means the compensation has to be made, the money has to be retrieved from the American government. The biggest fallacy in Williams’s argument is that reparations have to be made to the African Americans and the descendants of the slaves since the US Senate has passed the 26th Senate Resolution. It is a resolution about apology.

Apologies are made when one party has done harm to another, and feels sorry about it. This does not necessarily mean that the first party has to compensate the second party in any way. If compensations were to be made, then apology becomes meaningless since it becomes a two-way business in which first the slave owners and sellers benefited and now the descendants of the slaves are benefiting. Apology means regret, not compensation. In this context, the disclaimer placed at the end of the resolution is justified.

If the government does not pay, payment retrieved from any other community will raise substantial issues which will be graver than the need to compensate the descendants of the slaves. It is Williams’s fallacy that he has declared that the American government retrieves all the money it has from Americans. This is so untrue! The American government is not running on taxes paid by Americans alone. There are millions of Asians, Europeans, Arabs, and workers belonging to other nations who have not been granted the green card and yet they are earning in the USA and part of their payment goes to the American government.

Besides, the American government is earning a lot of money by doing business with the Arabs in general and the KSA in particular. There are several other sources of income for the American government.