Claude McKay's “The Harlem Dancer” is a poem steeped in the rich cultural aesthetics of a cultural renaissance that is unable to hide its dark song of oppression, even in an atmosphere incessantly trying to exorcise those bitter notes. The infected atmosphere in question is that of a Harlem nightclub, where a beautiful black woman dances away her difficulties as "laughing youths," "prostitutes," and the speaker watches. Using the speaker's unique perspective and rigorous sonnet form, McKay highlights both the beauty of resilience and the degradation of the African American “self” perpetuated by racial oppression. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Initially, a divide is drawn between the speaker and the rest of the audience due to a difference in race and perhaps morality. Critic Beth Palatnik agrees, stating that the speaker "identifies himself and the dancer with darkness" (Palatnik). According to his analysis, the speaker assumes a position of moral superiority over the rest of the audience who sexualizes the dancer's “half-clothed body” (McKay 2). She notes that the speaker is more concerned with the woman's "waving palm" than her scantily clad figure. Although Palatnik seems to believe that this evidence alone proves the speaker's moral superiority, the speaker is nevertheless an audience member in the nightclub, watching this sexualized dance. Therefore, it seems hypocritical to suggest that he is morally superior to those around him who watch the same show. However, perhaps the difference is not what the speaker sees, but what the audience does not see during the performance. Other audience members are described as “laughing,” “passionate,” and “passionate”; diction that alludes to their unbridled enjoyment of the performance. The speaker is separate from these “boys” and “girls,” and the slow, deliberate meter of this sonnet, antithetical to the raucous atmosphere of the nightclub, allows the reader to infer that the speaker is a more reserved and thoughtful presence. The critic Eugenia W. Collier confirms that the "slow, measured, dignified form of the sonnet" contrasts with the "wild world" of Harlem (Collier). The speaker's behavior contrasts with those around him just as the structure of this poem contrasts with its setting. Perhaps, as Palatnik suggests, his behavior stems from his repudiation of the eroticism projected by the audience, which she labels "cultural rape" or perhaps, as Collier speculates, he behaves differently due to the age disparity between himself and the other members of the public. (Palatnik). However, it is a third explanation that better defends the critical claim that the speaker of this poem is morally superior to those around him. In the final heroic couplet that follows the turn of this sonnet, the reader learns that the speaker sees the dancer's “self” as well as her body, creating a psychological connection rather than simple bodily fascination. The audience and the speaker are both voyeurs, enjoying the aesthetic pleasure of watching the dancer, but unlike the audience the speaker sees the dancer as a fully realized being, spiritually separate from her body and gender, if not from his race. The speaker sees her as a person and also as the attractive subject of his voyeurism, specifically a person similar to him due to their shared ethnicity. He recognizes the intersection of beauty and pain that define both his humanity and, as the speaker suggests, the African-American race. Using the ballerina as an archetype, the speaker and poet illuminate the codependency of beauty and adversity as it relates to the African-American. The woman..