Alexander Hu’s first serious involvement with social rights issues started at Herricks High School, where he was president of the school’s Amnesty International chapter.
Hu said in visiting other schools for track meets he received “a crash course in the stark economic and racial disparities” that exist on Long Island and the rest of the U.S.
After graduating Herricks High School, Hu continued his involvement with social rights when he earned a bachelor’s degree from the Stern School of Business at New York University, where his major was in finance and his minor was social entrepreneurship.
And now, two years after graduating New York University, Hu has set up a for-profit company to fight racism by building awareness about the issue through consumer products that carry a message.
His New York-based company, The Human Color, is, in his words, “a social venture and brand that is dedicated to celebrating diversity and fighting racial injustice.”
The first project of his venture is a collaboration with Thailand’s Doi Tung Development Project, government-sponsored organization that fosters economic development the country. The organization has been working in Golden Triangle of opium culture in Thailand, educating farmers about other crops they might grow as alternatives to opium.
Hu purchased scarves from the Doi Tung that are hand-dyed in full range of human skin color. Hu is selling the scarves for $35 apiece his Web site (www.thehumancolor.com). A jagged patch of those skin colors – modulating from dark brown at one end to white on the other – is the symbol on his Web site that he hopes will become as recognizable as the international peace symbol,and create a profile for his company nationally and internationally.
“It’s a visible item and something people can use for self-expression,” Hu said. “This is brand that stands for something.”
Hu said he is strongly influenced by the civil rights movement in the U.S. during the early ‘60s, but he said that changing laws doesn’t change people’s mind. In his mind, something “more ethereal” must occur and that’s where he thinks marketing products that bear a message makes a difference.
“Planting a message is a powerful thing,” Hu said. “I would love to move into shirts in the future.”
Several months ago, Hu started volunteering at ERASE Racism several times a week, helping with the organization’s education equity campaign on Long Island by working on alliances with similar community organizations.
Hu is also applying to law schools, aiming at a career in public interest law.
At the same time, he’s preparing for his next Human Color project, a poetry CD he’s hoping to publish a book of poetry.
“Currently I’m working on a poetry anthology with members of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe,” Hu said.
In this case, he’ll be sharing proceeds from sales of the anthology with the well-known lower Manhattan poetry group. He is currently inviting original entries for the poetry volume on the Human Color Web site (www.thehumancolor.com).
For Hu, it’s all a matter of passing on something that he learned growing up in Herricks.
“I was raised to value diversity. There was always a lot of mutual respect among the students,” Hu said. “It requires a degree of reflection to be grateful about what I am and to try and share that kind of spirit across the country.”
