Photo: Sam Hoode/Patrick McDermott/ (Getty Images)

Caitlin Clark was in the media last week, but — as has been the case a lot lately — it had nothing to do with her performance as a basketball player. Instead, it was all about her tapping a heart on Instagram.

Clark liked the Instagram post of Taylor Swift endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, which the pop megastar posted following the Sept. 10 presidential debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump. As of press time, Swift’s post has more than 11 million likes — but Clark likely suffered the worst blowback from her, with “fans” flooding her Instagram comments with disapproval.

“Definitely should have stayed out of politics @caitlinclark22. Loved watching you but now I refuse after seeing you support Taylor Swift and Kamala,” one comment on Caitlin Clark’s Instagram post said.

When press asked Clark if liking Swift’s post meant that she’d vote for Harris, she remained neutral and encouraged voters to do their research before making a decision: “I have this amazing platform so, I think the biggest thing would be to encourage people to register to vote,” Clark said at a press conference.

But Black folks can see what’s really the deal: Many of these “fans” of Clark’s weren’t in it because they like her…it’s because they wanted to use her as a pawn to shut down her college (and now WNBA) rival, Angel Reese. Though both women have remained gracious toward each other, their on-the-court rivalry helped push them both to popularity.

“Because she liked Taylor’s endorsement, Caitlin Clark’s IG comments are filled with “fans” saying they refuse to support her now. Be very clear: it was never about “growing the game” for many of CC’s fans. It was about using her to attempt to humble Black women,” said one tweet.

“The people in Caitlin Clark’s mentions attacking her for liking Taylor Swift’s post are reminder for what so many of us have been saying all along: those people were never Clark fans. They only wanted to use her to attack BW and are mad CC isn’t beholden to their anti-blackness,” another tweet said.

Though Both Clark and Reese have remained neutral on the issue of politics and have encouraged everyone to vote, Black folks recognize the response to Clark’s “like” indicates that much of her base was racist and championed her for reasons that had little to do with her abilities on the court.

Essentially, it took Tay-Tay for everyone to start saying the quiet part out loud.

“The people turning on Caitlin Clark are not fans. They never were. They cheered for her because they hated Angel Reese and thought Caitlin’s political views aligned with theirs. Fake Fans!” an additional tweet said.