FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MARCH 25, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 27
Off shore wind providing a cleaner, greener and more resilient New York
Assaults against Asian Americans are neither random nor right
BY FRANK H. WU
How many Asian Americans have to be
killed before other people realize there is
a pattern? Th e past year of the COVID-
19 pandemic has seen every type of violence
directed toward Asian Americans,
from name calling that leads to spitting
on pedestrians and shoving the elderly to
the ground hard enough to break bones,
to stabbings and ultimately the recent
shootings in Atlanta, Georgia. Although
the three businesses visited by the confessed
killer were Asian-owned and six of
eight victims were Asian women, a senior
law enforcement offi cial there described
the mass murder as the outcome of a
“bad day.”
Th e assaults are neither random nor
right. Asian Americans, however, have
experienced this type of dismissal of
their concerns. President Joe Biden mentioned
in his fi rst major speech that Asian
Americans number among those frontline
health care professionals risking their
lives to treat patients during the pandemic.
Yet Asian Americans continue to be
blamed for the disease in childish jokes
and conspiracy theories.
In the face of tragedy, Asian Americans
encounter skeptics about whether they in
fact suff er at all. Asian Americans have
diffi culty persuading others despite the
compelling evidence because we frame
race in black and white terms, literally and
fi guratively.
We discuss civil rights as if everyone
fi ts into one of two boxes, black or white.
A stroll through New York City confi rms
that this picture of the world is inaccurate,
regardless of your identity or your
politics.
Many people are Latinx, Jewish, Arab
and mixed. Th ere are Haitians and
Nigerians distinct from African American
and “white ethnics” who identify as Italian
or Polish or Greek. Th ey can be Afro-
Asian, Asian and Spanish-speaking due to
family roots in South America, or Asian
and adopted. Asian Americans are not
alone in being multicultural or of mixed
descent.
We wish for confl ict to be simple, villains
and victims. We visualize bigots
to be wicked through and through, and
those whom they harm to be pure beyond
reproach.
Th e trouble is that everyone except the
most extreme and the most foolish appreciates
that they are expected at least in
polite society to disavow their racism.
Observers help them by speculating that
there is an alternative explanation for
their malfeasance. We should be sympathetic
to the victims instead of the perpetrators.
What is not deemed “racist” in
intention can nonetheless be racial in consequences.
Some people are oblivious to the possibility
that Asian Americans run into discrimination.
I have been informed directly
by folks that all the Asian Americans
they know are “well off ” or that Asian
Americans don’t have it as bad as they
would in their “homelands” as if they
didn’t belong here. Th e studies consistently
show that Asian Americans who are welleducated
professionals are crowded below
the glass ceiling, or what some have called
a “bamboo ceiling.” Asian Americans also
report bias at rates lower than the reality,
due to language and culture.
It is infuriating when people explain to
me the attacks on Asian Americans are
not racist because they are directed at foreigners.
Th at pretext makes the prejudice
obvious: Asian Americans, both naturalized
and native born, face the very same
problems their parents and grandparents
do, but are not accepted as bona fi de citizens.
Th ey are shouted at to go back to
where they are “really” from and complimented
for speaking English so well.
Wrongdoers who are about to strike you
rarely pause to check your passport. Th e
implication of the excuse should be called
out, that it somehow would be tolerable
if off enders only targeted those who
were aliens. Once revealed, the sentiment
becomes indefensible.
I continue to be hopeful. Anti-Asian
American attitudes, hate crimes and
government policies have always been
around. But the awareness is new and
therefore encouraging. Perhaps now, in
coalitions with the #BLM movement and
the campaigns against resurgent anti-
Semitism, Asian Americans will have
allies in demanding only what our great
nation promises to all who believe in its
ideals: equality and justice.
Frank H. Wu is president of Queens
College.
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BY JOE MARTENS
Two years. To the average person that
might seem like a long time to wait for something
to happen. But in the world of environmental
advocacy, where progress oft en
occurs at a glacial pace, the progress that we
have seen the South Fork off shore wind project
make over the past two years is a truly
remarkable success story that will serve as
the launching pad for New York’s clean energy
economy.
For those of us in the environmental advocacy
community, who along with our local
civic, labor and business group partners have
spent the past two years pushing, prodding
and pulling in the same direction to advance
this project, the Public Service Commission’s
approval of the South Fork Wind cable landing
site is an important milestone along the
road to a cleaner, greener and more resilient
New York that will be powered by off shore
wind energy. Once completed — becoming
New York’s fi rst off shore wind farm
— South Fork Wind will provide enough
clean energy to power more than 70,000
homes, while also importantly reducing carbon
emissions and creating our next generation
of green economy jobs. But arguably
even more important than what this historic
project will achieve is the momentous path
it will set us on.
In 2019, when New York passed its historic
climate law that requires 70 percent of the
state’s electricity come from renewable energy
by 2030 and 100 percent emissions free
by 2040, it was lauded as a transformational
moment in the fi ght against climate change
and a national model for other states to follow.
Th at same law committed New York to
9,000 megawatts of off shore wind generation,
making it very clear where that power
would come from. South Fork Wind is leading
the way as a foundational piece of the
clean energy puzzle New York is assembling,
with Empire Wind 1 and 2, Sunrise Wind
and Beacon Wind all to follow.
It’s clear that we cannot win the fi ght
against climate change without responsibly
developed off shore wind power, and in
fact, we cannot even step into the ring. Th at
is why the PSC’s approval is so important,
because it not only advances a key clean
energy project, but it also represents a signifi
cant and concrete step toward reaching
the off shore wind-driven clean energy
economy that New York needs in order
to meet its ambitious and necessary climate
change goals.
Whether it’s been working with PSC staff ,
organizing support from local and state
elected offi cials, or mobilizing a deep grassroots
public education and advocacy eff ort,
South Fork Wind is a shining example of
how a collaborative and community driven
project can transform our approach to clean
energy development. As is the case with
almost any development project, there has
been motivated opposition along the way,
but South Fork has persevered and continued
its forward progress because of strong
stakeholder engagement, local leadership
and the state’s commitment to battling climate
change.
As our state continues to grapple with
an economy struggling to recover from the
depths of the COVID crisis, off shore wind
development is a ready, willing and waiting
partner that we must engage. From new job
creation to manufacturing activity and economic
growth opportunities, off shore wind
projects can provide a major boost to our
economy, reduce pollution and help reach
our climate change goals for years to come.
It is my hope that the action by the PSC
is just another step in what will be a steady
progression to a 100 percent clean energy
future, with off shore wind blowing us farther
and farther away from the days of a fossil
fuel-based economy. Off shore wind can
power that transition and transform our climate
change goals into a clean energy reality.
Now that we’ve taken this big step, it’s time to
put our next foot forward and get construction
underway.
Joe Martens is the director of the NY
Off shore Wind Alliance and he’s the former
commissioner for the NY Department
of Environmental Conservation (DEC). He
joined the Alliance for Clean Energy NY in
2017. Since joining ACE NY, New York state
has adopted the most aggressive off shore wind
targets in the United States, entered into contracts
for the largest commercial-scale off shore
wind projects to date and has committed $200
million for port and infrastructure upgrades to
support this burgeoning industry.
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