## 6 Racialized Identification and Friendship \"Steering\"  
As [PERSON] has extensively discussed, the establishment of an individual's racial identity in an online space is determined by two factors: how much an individual chooses to share, and the interpretation of that information by their audience [39, 40]. Both of these aspects are at play in the Playhouse forum. When a person joins the community, they are expected to make a post that will serve as their introduction to the community. These posts share many common themes: the individual will mention how they first became interested in American Girl, discuss why they sought out the forum, and provide some personalizing details such as geographic location, their profession, or their marital status. Racial and ethnic identity is one of the personalizing details that members sometimes include, as in the example below,  
\"Hey guys! I'm sure many of you have seen me around the board already, but I figured I'd make a 'formal' introduction. I'm [PERSON], short for [PERSON], although I also go by [PERSON] (it's my 'daknam', or informal name at home). I am Indian-American, (...) I was born in (New England) but I grew up (...) about a half an hour away from Williamsburg, VA ([PERSON]'s hometown!) (Posted June 2007)\"  
After reviewing the introductory posts on the forum, a clear pattern emerged. The only members who mentioned their race were those who are non-white. To be clear, not every non-white member discussed their racial identity in their introduction, but absolutely no white members thought this information was important enough to establish who they were in the forum. Introductions from white people were more likely to resemble this example,  
\"I have a 2 year old daughter and ever since I knew she was a girl (about 5 months into my pregnancy) I have been collecting AG dolls. I wish they had had these dolls when I was young, I had Barbies but these dolls are so much cooler and I love the books. I am hoping to start making clothes for them, too. I can't wait until my daughter gets a little older so she can play with them with me! (My family thinks I'm nuts, but I'm used to that!) (Posted December 2006)\"This pattern is hardly surprising. White people often do not consider themselves to have any race at all. This follows directly on the idea of whiteness as a default racial identity [8, 41]. In fact, this pattern echoes American Girl's own practices of identifying the race of their characters. The introductions posted on this forum serve as more than an individual's entree in to a community--they become the basis for how others, particularly moderators, interacted with the individual. As our introductory respondent [PERSON] explained, the mention of race in her profile led moderators to steer her toward the other Black women on the forum, without any knowledge of other similar interests or collecting choices. Given that these introductory posts are short, there could be an argument that the \"steering\" of people is a result of the moderators having to work with the few details they have. However, the introductory posts are not the only information that the moderators (and others on the boards) have about the members. They are also aware of what dolls the person collects and what discussions the member is more likely to participate in. [PERSON]'s collecting interests were on the contemporary line of dolls, and she felt strongly that she would only purchase dolls that represented Blackness to her. The two members she was referred to both preferred the historical dolls, and had repeatedly noted that they had a preference for the dolls with white features. In other words, while [PERSON] and these other members are both interested in American Girl, they have radically different preferences for the various products. Unfortunately, the opportunity to ask a moderator about how they chose to suggest friends for new members did not present itself.