Gaming as a teacher of tolerance?

When I'm not murdering myself trying to meet my deadlines for Bone (shameless plug: check out the new web-site!), I'm playing alot of Jade Empire these days. Jade Empire is set in a mythical pseudo-chinese setting. Most of the story and ambiance feel very Chinese, and all the characters are Asian of course whether they are heroic or evil. This got me thinking: could games be used as an effective tool for teaching tolerance to kids? When I was growing up, half the population of every school I went to was Asian. Just being around these kids and playing their games or trying to pronounce the name of their favorite Hong Kong singer made me extremely comfortable with their culture, I think. However, I did not know very many Black or Hispanic kids growing up. They were vastly outnumbered at the schools I went to and usually only socialized amongst themselves. The couple memories I have of interacting with African American kids in middle school and elementary school are not positive ones. I think all of this has had an impact on my feelings with regards to different races today. I interact freely with Asian people without hesitation, whereas although I want to understand more of Black culture it is largely foreign to me and can sometimes make me uncomfortable because it seems the rules are vastly different. Anyway, back to Jade Empire. So in this game you not only are playing a Chinese protagonist, but you witness a whole people all going about their business and it very much humanizes the culture I think. Sure there is your character and the other bad-asses who hang out with you, but there is also the bun-maker and the blacksmith and the people who are sad cuz no one will go out with them. There are many games set in medieval Europe, many in ancient Japan, and quite a few in old China. Or fantasy represtations thereof. Let's try setting some in Africa, Central America, or India. I've said for quite some time I'd love to make a Bollywood game but honestly, there is so much rich lore in all these cultures that could be explored in games. If the latest greatest game explored the mythology of Africa and all the characters, good, bad and neutral were Black, would that change the way they looked at that kid at school that they've never really tried to understand? Instead our African American game heroes are sports players or that guy from GTA: San Andreas. Oh yeah, let's associate all African American culture with that.