Russell Simmons Says Flint Water Crisis is 'Environmental Racism'

Russell Simmons is calling the tragedy of Flint’s water crisis an extension of “environmental racism.”

In a visit to The Real on Friday, Simmons said there are larger implications at play than just cutting costs.

7 Facts on Flint’s Water Crisis

“You can’t poison the whole community,” Simmons shared. “Almost every kid may have brain damage. It’s worse than what people are saying and there is a lot more that they aren’t admitting. We gotta dig deeper into this.”

“We need the governor’s hands in cuffs. If this happened in Beverly Hills — first of all they would’ve found out in two minutes, and everybody would’ve been in trouble.”

The music and media mogul said he will visit Flint in the coming weeks with a sizable gift from his RushCard Company that will include more than just water.

Simmons added that he has a firm belief that Governor Snyder has no real investment in his constituents because “first of all he’s a conservative governor, there’s black people there, they don’t vote for him, and they’re poor. So he just let it happen. And it would never happen in a community where people had wealth and influence.”