Discussing “immigration system” on KVOR's Afternoon Show, host VanDyke read poem filled with ethnic slurs

Written by Media Matters Staff

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On his June 26 broadcast, News Radio 740 KVOR host Gary VanDyke read a poem he said he found on the Internet that contained numerous ethnic slurs about immigrants. Written in ungrammatical English, the poem stated that, among other things, immigrants have a “hobby”: "[I]t's called breeding."

Shortly after asking listeners, “What are we doing wrong with our immigration system?” in the United States, News Radio 740 KVOR Afternoon Show host Gary VanDyke read a poem he “found ... on the Net” that was filled with ethnic slurs about immigrants, including the line that they engage in the “hobby” of “breeding.” The poem, which was written in ungrammatical and broken English, began with the lines, “I visit US, get treated regal/So I stay, who care I illegal?” Other verses included:

Fourteen families they move in,
But neighbor's patience wearing thin.
Finally, neighbor moves away,
Now I buy his house, and then I say,
“Find more aliens for house to rent.”
And in the yard I put a tent.
Send for family (they just trash),
But they, too, draw the welfare cash!
Everything is very good,
And soon we own the neighborhood.
We have hobby -- it's called breeding,

The anonymous poem concluded with a reference to “the American race”:

We think America darn good place.
Too darn good for the American race.
If they no like us, they can scram,
They'll find lots of room in Pakistan.

After reading the poem on the air, VanDyke exclaimed, “Oh, my goodness gracious. What are we doing wrong with the immigration system? What are we doing wrong?”

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, numerous other Colorado talk show hosts and their guests have engaged in derogatory commentary while discussing immigration and immigrants. For example, on the May 21 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show, frequent guest Terry Anderson implied that Latinos “breed” like “chickens and rats.”

From the June 26 broadcast of News Radio 740 KVOR's Afternoon Show (Live & Local):

VANDYKE: What are we doing wrong with our immigration system? You know, I don't think anybody's asked you that question. What are we doing wrong with the immigration system? Oh -- there's a lot of theories out there as to what we can be doing, and I want to hear what your theory is on what we should be doing. What are we doing wrong? What should we be doing? Should we open the borders and let anybody in? Should we build the fence? Should we require -- should it be tougher to get in America? And what do we do with the illegal immigrants that are here now and the ones that are going to be coming here in the future? We'll be talking about that after the break.

So, here's what I did: I found this on the Net. Don't know who the author is, because the author is unknown. I will not give -- I, I'm gonna read something to you. It's kind of a poem, I guess you could say. It has -- and I will not read it with any dialect, so if you think I'm reading with a dialect, don't bother to call in with that problem. Here's what it says about our im -- immigration system:

[reads poem]

[...]

VANDYKE: Oh, my goodness gracious. What are we doing wrong with the immigration system? What are we doing wrong? Here's your opportunity to give me an -- your ideas on what we should be doing with the immigration system.