<u+2018>go back to where you claim home,<u+2019> kansas lawmaker tells protester dion lefler, wichita eagle, october 25, 2016 




kansas state rep. joe seiwert commented on facebook that an african-american singer who knelt while performing <u+201c>the star spangled banner<u+201d> at a miami heat game should <u+201c>go back<u+201d> to where she claims as home. 




seiwert, r-pretty prairie, posted that comment and a longer follow-up on an anti-black meme that was originally posted to a pro-donald trump facebook group and then shared by one of seiwert<u+2019>s constituents. 




seiwert confirmed the comments were his and said he was exercising his first amendment right to free speech, as he says the woman in the meme did when she wore a black lives matter t-shirt and knelt while singing the anthem. 




{snip} 




the photo in the meme is of denasia lawrence, a miami social worker and, according to the miami sun-sentinel, a part-time game-night employee of the heat professional basketball team. the team has issued a statement saying team officials were unaware that lawrence planned to protest when they asked her to sing the anthem at friday<u+2019>s preseason game with the philadelphia 76ers. 




{snip} 




to which seiwert responded: <u+201c>i am where i claim home and like it, they want to claim it and it is their right to go where ever they like, so if they don<u+2019>t like it here, i believe that their freedom completely allows them to go wherever they believe is more free and non racist if that<u+2019>s what they believe.<u+201d> 




seiwert said he didn<u+2019>t see the profanity in the meme when he commented and didn<u+2019>t do anything wrong. 




<u+201c>i have a personal life besides a legislative life,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>maybe it was inappropriate; i don<u+2019>t believe so, because i said nothing derogatory. and i believe that (if) people are that upset with the national anthem, they can do whatever they want to on their own time, but when they<u+2019>re using it on national tv to make a statement, that<u+2019>s not right. 




<u+201c>i said if she (lawrence) doesn<u+2019>t like it here, then go where she would like it. what<u+2019>s wrong with that?<u+201d> he said. 




asked why a person should leave rather than try to change things where they are, seiwert responded: <u+201c>because maybe there<u+2019>s other people who don<u+2019>t want their place changed.<u+201d> 




he also said he did not think his comments had anything to do with race. 




<u+201c>it don<u+2019>t make any difference if they<u+2019>re black, white or green, it<u+2019>s the disrespect to our country,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>and why does everybody put the color to it?<u+201d> 




{snip} 




the person who made the meme took a photo of lawrence from the web and added, in capital letters, <u+201c>kneeling while singing the national anthem . . . i<u+2019>m so sick of these anti-american blacks . . . (expletive) black lives matter.<u+201d> 




seiwert<u+2019>s comment, directed at lawrence, was: <u+201c>go back to where you claim home than (sic).<u+201d> 




{snip}
<u+2018>go back to where you claim home,<u+2019> kansas lawmaker tells protester
henry wolff