HICKORY, N.C. — Two students held up a Mexican flag. One young man pulled open his half-zipped hoodie to show off his gold rosary necklace and chest tattoo. Another young man held aloft a piece of corrugated cardboard with “F–k Trump/Hilary Clinton for President” scrawled in black Sharpie. One student wore a bandana and a black neoprene facemask.

One young woman’s sign read “I’d rather shove a brick up your a– than pay for a wall, Pendejo!”