Rex Chapman candidly discusses racial discrimination while dating his black girlfriend, Shawn Higgs, shedding light on the complexities of race relations in Kentucky during his time there from 1986 to 1988.
"Yeah, so Shawn Higgs is her name, and Shawn and I, we knew each other from the time we were, you know, early teenagers. Her brother, Mark Higgs, played in the NFL. He was the best football player at Kentucky when I was there at Kentucky."
"Shawn was a track star in high school. She won the state 100 meters twice in a row our junior and senior years in high school. Folks in our hometown didn't like... We were discouraged from really dating publicly, and so we hid it when we were in high school for the most part."
"Which was just, when I think back about it, this really bothers me. But then we got to Kentucky, UK, and we thought we're going from a town of 60,000 people to a town of 500,000. We thought we were going to New York City, where people wouldn't care."
Chapman recounted how he and Higgs, who knew each other from their early teenage years, faced opposition to their relationship even in their hometown. Despite their athletic achievements and family connections, they felt compelled to conceal their relationship due to societal pressures. However, Chapman had hoped that attending the University of Kentucky, with its larger and more diverse population, would offer them a reprieve from such prejudices.
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