One time in high school I wrote an essay about how it would be cool to track down and burn every confederate flag in the country. I requested this essay be read aloud in the class, but was told it was too extreme. The teacher had a whole litany of notes in red ink on my essay, criticizing my hatred of the confederacy and southern reactionaries. At one point he even wrote "Think about the heritage the flag represents, not the hatred you say it represents"
My essay was returned to me, I was told to pick a different topic, and I had to go to the school counselor for three days for "violent thoughts." A few days later someone carved a homophobic slur into my locker.
Yes I grew up in the south