Here's an interesting article that I just read-"Germany's Next Top Model and the Psychology of Privilege" [The Germany Files] by Guest Contributors Carolina Asuquo-Brown and Elisabeth Schäfer-Wünsche:

http://www.racialicious.com/2009/08/27/germany%e2%80%99s-next-top-model-and-the-psychology-of-privilege-the-germany-files/#more-

That article provides commentary about the reactions among Germans to the fact that the winner of the "Germany's Next Top Model" television series (which was announced this past May) was Sara Nuru, a "Bavarian-born with Ethiopian roots". According to that article "up to season 3 (this summer) no brown face made it to the final stages of the show. [However]In last year's show, a girl with a Brazilian mother came fifth".

That article also provides information & commentary about "another hugely popular German TV format (also adapted from a US show, namely from "American Idol") [which] is well known to draw its contestants mainly from Germany's migrant population". A reader of that blog post shared that "91% of Germans are German in terms of ethnicity. Turks make up the largest minority group, as I expected, at 2.1%, and the rest is made up of immigrants who are primarily white. The top four ethnic groups for this small group of others are Serbian, Italian, Polish, and Greek.".

Another reader of the Racialicious blog which cross-posted that article wrote:

"...I have lived in Germany and am Afro-German myself, and while I agree there are instances of racism that still occur, Germany has come a long way from its Nazi past. I think many (if not a majority of) white Germans consciously have chosen to be non-racist because of the past. Germans want to get as far away from that image as possible."

-snip-

A central theme of that article is that these types of television programs are helping to eradicate racism in that nation by providing opportunities for Germans to 'get to know' people of other races & ethnicities.

In my opinion, that's one way to help eradicate personal racism, although it will not directly lead to changes in any institutional racism that may also exist in that nation. And it seems to me that use of the mass media is a good model (excuse the pun) for other nations to follow.

Do you have any opinions about this?