[Lawtonfogle]

>they are there to undo some of the still present damage from those acts.

In which case income/wealth/SES are the better metrics, as they ensure those who are damaged get help instead of relying on some other measure as a proxy for damage.

[scott_s]

Income is easy to measure, but it does not capture wealth very well. Even if we measure all total assets, there is still an enormous amount of unmeasured wealth: can you go to a family member or friend for financial help in an emergency? Even when we compare people with the same income and total assets, that latter question tends to be different for white people versus black people.

In America, black people suffered organized, systemic oppression for generations which prevented them from accumulating wealth. That fact is not well capture by just looking at someone's income, or even all of their assets. That's also a question of all accumulated assets of all of their family and close friends.

A recent Pro Publica piece covers this very well: "The Color of Debt: How Collection Suits Squeeze Black Neighborhoods", https://www.propublica.org/article/debt-collection-lawsuits-.... I originally heard it on This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/573/s...

I also think Ta-Nehisi Coates' famous piece covers the history of systemic financial oppression well, "The Case for Reparations", http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case...