Parents Struggle To Start Multiracial Play Group

Growing up in Virginia, Lewis Butler sometimes felt like an outcast because of his mixed heritage: Native American, African-American and white.

“I felt like I was that misfit toy,” he said. “I didn’t have a place.”

Butler and his wife, Jennifer, fear that it’s only a matter of time before their two sons — Jett, 3, and Miles, 9 months — will suffer similar feelings. So the Butlers are trying to start a multiracial play group.

For about a year now, they’ve run an announcement in a Fayette County newspaper, The Citizen, that begins “Southside Interracial/Multi-Racial Playgroup is now forming.”

So far, the announcement hasn’t worked. The Butlers aren’t sure why.

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MULTIRACIAL POPULATIONS

Here are the states, plus the District of Columbia, with the most and fewest residents of two or more races, according to 2003 U.S. census estimates:

1. California 830,490 2.3%

2. New York 272,367 1.4%

3. Hawaii 252,363 20%

4. Texas 225,297 1%

5. Florida 197,063 1.1%

14. Georgia 85,080 .097%

47. South Dakota 9,155 1.2%

48. District of Columbia 8,054 1.4%

49. Vermont 6,547 1%

50. North Dakota 6,167 .097%

51. Wyoming 6,137 1.2%