## 7 Community Discussion and Essentializing  
American Girl as a company has consciously created an impression of racial and ethnic diversity, but the actual product line-up does not support this image. While the average consumer may not be aware of the intricacies of the company's history, the collectors are. They have dedicated much time to their hobby, and thus recognize what the company has done and has failed to do. One such failure is the fact that American Girl has not yet created a GotY character who is African-American. An oversight obvious enough to have received attention in the popular press, this \"missing\" representation is discussed regularly every year within the community. The discussions about this oversight generally begin in the summer, when members look to see if book covers have been made available to retailers, or if there are leaked products available on eBay. The discussion generally reaches its peak in the fall when American Girl releases some early information on its website or to the national press. The conversation subsides when the new doll is released in January, and the pattern repeats. These discussions in the forum center on the questions of whether an African-American character would be economically viable for the company. The members of the community overwhelmingly expressed a desire for a Black GotY doll in their forum posts, a desire that was also reflected in responses to the survey of members--almost 90% of survey respondents expressed the hope that American Girl would release a Black limited edition doll in the near future. The fact that this discussion happens on an annual basis is surprising because the majority of forum members surveyed did not participate in the discussions. In the survey, 86.7% said they read the discussions centered on race, only 36.6% said they participated. This was supported with the analysis of the forum archives, which showed that the conversation about racial representation in American Girl was maintained by a core group of participants. However, the explanation of the choice to not participate, and the perception of these discussions, reveal a distinctly racialized pattern. White community members repeatedly expressed a feeling that discussions about race were unpleasant, uncomfortable, or something that was irrelevant to the topic of doll collecting and should be stopped. As these white members stated in their survey comments,  
\"I find (the discussions) shallow. While I am all for racial equality among people, I will not buy a doll with features I do not find attractive just to prove that I'm not a racist.\"  
\"They're fucking annoying. Seriously. I'm all for more diversity, but a lot of time I feel like the Addy love is solely countering racism, and sometime the arguments seem racist against white collectors.\"  
\"I just want them to shut up. There's a new thread every few days about race and it makes me want to leave.\"  
On the other hand, non-white survey respondents had a different interpretation. While they also said that these conversations could be uncomfortable, they also stated that they enjoyed the conversations because they allowed them a chance to discuss issues they saw as problems. As some of these non-white members said in their survey comments,  
\"They tend to be very frustrating. Usually someone says something cluelessly insensitive and continue to be clueless throughout, and nobody really stops them.\"  
\"I seem to most often post only to correct others' misinterpretations of a race or culture.\"  
\"I participate. And often people don't like my opinions b/c I am not white washing anything making it all peaches and cream.\"  
In addition to these different perceptions of the conversation, non-white survey respondents were more likely to state that they used to participate in the racial discussions but have since stopped. While 45% of non-white respondents reported no longer participating in these discussions, only 15% of white respondents stopped participating. As one non-white respondent said,  
\"Not anymore!