You Can Cure Yourself of Racism!

Erika Rothenberg
You Can Cure Yourself of Racism!
Acrylic on canvas with stick-on lettering, 1987
40 x54 in.
From the Stuart and Judy Spence Collection, donated April 1999 by Judy and Stuart Spence
1999.004.072

You Can Cure Yourself of Racism! humorously illustrates how a simple nasal spray in the comfort of one’s own home purports to fix the problem of racism. Former Laguna Art Museum curator Tyler Stallings points out that the work “parodies this American ‘right to consume,’ which extends not just to fast food and cars but to nations and people as well.” It also comments on the compulsion to seek quick, and—like nasal spray—temporary remedies to deeper problems.