Honored to be E&P 's 2024 Publisher of the Year, the first time in the 125 years of this award it has been given to a Black woman publisher - and proud to provide you with our FREE ACCLAIMED NEWSLETTERS. Publisher Elinor "Elly" Tatum
Last September 10, almost immediately after the presidential debate between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump concluded, mega pop icon Taylor Swift, who has over 280 million Instagram followers, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidency on her social media platform.
Subsequently, basketball star Caitlin Clark, a supremely gifted point guard for the WNBA's Indiana Fever, who a few weeks later would be named the league's rookie of the year, liked Swift's post on her account. The backlash from Trump supporters and ardent right-wing voices was prompt and harsh.
They had wrongly assumed that Clark, a native of Middle America in Des Moines, Iowa, who rose to fame as one of the best women's college basketball players of all time at the University of Iowa, scoring the most points (3,951) in NCAA Division I history for a man or woman, who had not publicly stated who she voting for, was a member of the MAGA cult or hopeful she was a passive adherent of white supremacist ideology. Two days later, Clark explained her position.
"I have this amazing platform, so I think the biggest thing would be to just encourage people to register to vote," she said. "Continue to educate yourself on the candidates that we have, the policies that they're supporting."
While Clark has endeared herself to teammates of all ethnicities, she has become, undeservedly, a polarizing figure along the fractured lines of race and sexual preference. Many past and present players, as well as sports and cultural pundits, contend her enormous popularity is in large part because she is white and/or that she is a heterosexual white woman in a league with many openly gay players. Clark's popularity drove record-breaking attendance and television ratings while she was at Iowa and in this past WNBA season.
They refer to Breanna Stewart, a gay white woman whose superlative resume includes the unmatched accomplishment of winning four straight NCAA championships and four NCAA Tournament most outstanding player awards, as someone who should receive the same widespread love as Clark. There is also Angel Reese, who led LSU to a victory over Clark and Iowa in the 2023 NCAA championship game and battled Clark for most of last season for the rookie of the year honor.
Three weeks ago, Sheila Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television and owner of the WNBA's Washington Mystics, was critical of Time Magazine for naming Clark its "Athlete of the Year." Johnson pondered why Time "couldn't have put the whole WNBA on that cover," in an interview with CNN Sport.
She also echoed the view of many that the league and their broadcast partners, including Disney-owned ABC and ESPN, fostered envy of Clark among players by intensely building their marketing campaigns around her while minimizing other stars.
"When you just keep singling out one player, it creates hard feelings," said Johnson. "This year, something clicked with the WNBA and it's because of the draft of players that came in. It's not just Caitlin Clark, it's (Angel) Reese (also). We have so much talent out there."