My film To Think Things You Don’t Want To is intense. The language is deliberately strong and it deals with the very sensitive subject of racism. It’s a journey inside a white Swedish woman’s head while she gets to know a black man. It’s a journey through the underworld of thoughts beyond political correctness. It’s not a journey through our dark thoughts or the darker aspects of humanity – it’s a journey into our collectively suppressed and sublimated selves. Where ‘self’ is understood to be a complex socio-historical construction.

The storyline is told in diary format and is about the ambiguity of a white woman’s racial thoughts about and desires for a black man. By talking about racism, I don’t try to set us free. I prefer to expose our common fears and our constructed barriers that prevent us from reaching out towards each other. Gradually and boldly I reveal that we are all at the same time abusers and victims of our social preconceptions. Racist assumptions are mixed with exotic assertions about the black man. After seeing the film, I want people to ask themselves what it is to be white.