Minority Poem By Wing Tek Lum For george Lee

Why Were just as America As apple pie That is, if you count The leftover peelings Lying on the kitchen counter Which the cook has forgotten about Or doesnt know Quite what to do with Except hope that the maid When she cleans off the chopping block Will chuck them away Into a garbage can shell take out On leaving for the night

In this poem by Wing Tek Lum, i will use the postcolonial theory to analyse this poem. Postcolonial criticism is generally examining the relationship between the center and the marginalized. Based on Edward Said, in his theory orientalism, it examines how the center sees the marginalized. The center and the marginalized are in the networks of power. In this case, the center is the one who have the power, the authority to define the marginalized. The center is seen as the superior when the marginalized is seen as the inferior. Based on the theory above, I see that in this poem, Wing Tek Lum wants to shows that there are some people (or race) that are marginalized in the America. The second and the third lines Were just as America As apple pie

I think the poet wants to make an analogy of America that America is like an apple pie. As we know that to make a delicious apple pie, we can not make it only using one ingredients. We know that it contains of different flavour and ingredients.Similar to the making of apple pie, America is consist of a lot of different ethicity and races, which sometimes become minorities. America which is popular by its melting pot of the different cultures. However, i find that like Said has stated, that in this poem describe the position of the West and the East, the center and the marginalized. The marginalized, represented by the leftover peelings is said that is, if you count. It seems like the minorities are even does not included into the apple pie. they are just considered as the leftover, do not important in the country. In the next line it is also described that the leftover peeling is just lying on the kitchen and forgotten and abandoned. It gives the emphasize that the marginalized are being forgotten by the country and maybe by the goverment itself, because they are considered as unimportant. I see that in America there are a lot of people from other country migrate to America. Maybe, because of there are so many people migrate to America, the goverment quite confuse what to do with them. We can see that the other ethnicity (in the minority point of view) feels that they are marginalized. Like in the next lines :
Except hope that the maid When she cleans off the chopping block Will chuck them away Into a garbage can shell take out On leaving for the night

it seems here that the goverment or the white people in America does not want them to be there. They do not want to blend with the people from the other ethnicities and think that the minorities are not important at all. Also it seems like the goverment is the center in this poem because it is the one who have the authority to driven the minority. That the minority can not do anything if the goverment do something to them, (will chuck them away into a garbage can shell take out on leaving for the night).