Today is the Part Two of The Takeaway’s series “The Color of Money.” We’re exploring how the financial crisis is affecting people of color in the United States, perhaps differently than it affects their white peers. Today we are taking a close look at how financial services are marketed by black Americans to black Americans. For example, “rush cards" — no-credit-check, pre-paid credit cards with $200 credit limits and $50 a year in fees. We’re joined by Boyce Watkins, professor of finance at Syracuse University and founder of YourBlackWorld, to discuss access to credit, the failings of financial institutions, and the changing American Dream.

Listen to Part One of The Takeaway's Color of Money series, Debtors' Prison: It lives in the 21st Century.

Here is the ad for Russell Simmons' "Rush Card":



And here is a conversation about that Rush Card from the Young Guns Now (some harsh language):