Hip Hop mogul Russell Simmons has been facing harsh criticism for his Rush Card business. Marketed primarily towards low-income African Americans, Rush Cards are described as “no-credit-check, pre-paid credit cards with $200 credit limits and $50 a year in fees” by public radio program “The Takeaway.”
In an interview with the morning radio show, Boyce Watkins, a professor of finance at Syracuse University, compared Russell Simmons’ Rush Cards to pimping.
“It’s a very interesting sort of idea here,” Watkins said. “[Simmons is] saying ‘I’m giving everyone access to the American Dream,’ but I never really knew the American Dream consisted of having a piece of plastic that puts people further and further in debt. But even a pimp that helps – that quote unquote ‘helps’ – a young woman get off the street, he can say I helped you because you were homeless when I met you and now you’re not.”
After the New York Times published a blog which also showed Rush Cards in a negative light using quotes from the radio interview, Simmons made a statement firing back at critics.
To read that statement, please click here! Check out Russell lovin’ the white girls below:
