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I'm Filipino American, and last week, I dreamt about a group of young men punching my boyfriend Kristian (also Filipino American), in the face, just seconds before circling around my Filipino mother and stabbing her. Phone in hand, I was ready to call for help — but my hands were stuck, my eyes fixated on my mom, my ears throbbing from the yelling and screaming. I stood frozen, just watching. That's when I woke up shivering, in a helpless panic. Fortunately, that was just a bad dream. But the
hateful discrimination that's been happening in the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in the past few weeks is far from fantasy: It’s been a living nightmare.