Danielle Panabaker, along with other female stars of the ‘CWverse’ family of live-action DC superhero shows, have been accused by fans of the Arrowverse series of racism due to their acknowledgement of fan ships that paired Barry Allen with anyone other than Iris West.
On June 3rd, Twitter user @softxiris authored an extensive multi-tweet thread claiming to reveal the “untold truth Of Danielle Panabaker, and others, undermining Candice Patton.”
Beginning the thread on the topic of Panabaker’s alleged infractions, @softxiris claims Panabaker has ‘undermined’ Iris West actress Candice Patton, a black woman, due to constant discussions with fans over the romantic pairing of her character, Caitlin Snow, with Allen.
Related: The CW Fires The Flash Actor Hartley Sawyer For “Derogatory Remarks”
According to @softxiris, the “untold truth Of Danielle Panabaker, and others, undermining Candice Patton,” a black woman, is based on Panabaker’s friendly interactions with fans discussing the romantic pairing of her character, Caitlin Snow, with Allen, as well as moments where Panabaker did not explicitly guide the conversation to discuss Patton or her character, Iris West.
First, we’re going to start off with the way Danielle has tried to undermine Candice. This first example will be her baiting Snowbarry, a crackship made out of racial discrimination against Candice. Here is the proof. pic.twitter.com/o3WjM3sdgL
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
Here is the first instance of Danielle baiting SB. Mind you, she openly admitted she saw the ship very early, which means she baited it whilst knowing of the hate Candice got from them. pic.twitter.com/WaehoIFHPs
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
Second instance. Not only did she bait the ship, she always romanticized sexual assault. Imagine how her fans that were sexual assault survivors must’ve felt. Her fans still use that scene in romantic edits. Candice was also sitting right there. pic.twitter.com/kBho6TiRoP
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
Third instance. Keep that ‘everyone loves a good love triangle’ quote in your mind – it’ll come back later. pic.twitter.com/JLsBRVJ1pH
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
Fourth instance. She continuously brings up Caitlin’s friendship with Barry and paints it as a romantic relationship but only refers to Caitlin’s relationship with Cisco as platonic. Why? pic.twitter.com/YbIIF9cJ21
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
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Now we’re going to move onto her tweets where she has promoted Caitlin and Barry, as well as even Barry and Patty but never Barry and Iris. pic.twitter.com/cW7kcZ4ar2
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
Third tweet. This tweet was made only last year – further enabling even more hate from SB’s towards Candice even after it’s clear Barry and Iris are endgame. pic.twitter.com/rIfFqnD68J
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
For the next examples, we’re going to move onto her trying to ignore and erase Candice’s part in Shethority. First example, in which she gives full credit to Caity Lotz and Katie Cassidy for Shethority when in fact, Katie hadn’t joined till much later and it was Caity and Candice pic.twitter.com/ABDUZJY53P
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
For this next part, I’m going to show quick excerpts from interviews where Danielle has only mentioned Shantel as another woman who could potentially be a friend for Caitlin when there’s been Iris since season one, or even Linda. pic.twitter.com/Kh8CAw7hfq
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
In an attempt to explain her position, @softxiris argued that the ‘SnowBarry’ ship was “created out of racial hate for candice after she was casted as iris , a white character”.
The ship is primarily and largely rooted in an early plot line written for The Flash. A canon pairing between Caitlin and Barry was entertained during the show’s early seasons, but was adamantly opposed by Grant Gustin, The Flash himself, who wanted to keep Barry’s love life comic accurate.
Related: The Flash’s Candice Patton Advocates Controversial Race-Based Casting Decisions
@softxiris also leveled direct accusations of racism towards Panabaker simply due to her posting a New York Times article discussing the effect of cancel culture, a brief romantic relationship with Final Fantasy: Spirits Within and Kingdom Hearts voice actor James Woods, and for addressing the death of George Floyd in a way that @softxiris found personally unacceptable.
Now we’re going to move onto her racist behavior. First, we have this tweet regarding an article. Many of her fans like to justify this but let me ask this, if there was nothing racist about it, why‘d she delete it? The original tweet was racist and she became a racist apologist. pic.twitter.com/OQCOKYNSDv
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
Second, we have the fact that she dated a white supremacist. Again, a lot of her fans like to say they didn’t date or they were on set. These photos are not on any set. pic.twitter.com/pyr70jLwUl
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
Third, we’re going to talk about the most recent event in which she was EXTREMELY tone deaf regarding the murder of George Floyd, posting about flowers and even cooking ads. Where Chris Wood called her out. Following this, she posted more stories which even her fans saw through. pic.twitter.com/RpeaN16A3O
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
Fourth, we’re going to talk about the fact that she deleted that first picture barely an hour after posting it. Something that was pointed out was it was art work made by a black woman. The post of George she posted, she also disabled the comments, knowing she‘d be called out. pic.twitter.com/D4YUu3Lvmb
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
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Aside from Panabaker, @softxiris also described other female CWverse stars of also engaging in racist behavior, similarly citing outlandish insinuations from innocent discussions between the actresses, fans, and other cast members about their respective characters being shipped with Barry Allen.
Those accused included Shantel VanSanten, who played Barry’s season two love interest Patty Spivot, who jokingly played the popular ‘f***, marry, kill’ game from the perspective of her character.
Now per the title, I insinuated I was going to include others. So let’s talk about Shantel Vansanten. First example, her blatant statement of her character, whom is known as ‘Police Brutality Patty’ said she would kill Iris, a black woman, so Patty could have Barry. pic.twitter.com/YAxuxTh7fR
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
Caity Lotz, better known as Black (and later White) Canary on Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow, was also accused based on her defense of Panabaker against allegations that she was erasing the role of Patton in the work of Shethority, “an online global collective that provides a positive space for Cis women, transwomen, genderqueer women, and non-binary people who are significantly female-identified, to discuss and conquer the unique challenges of the female experience in today’s world” founded by Lotz, Patton, and several of their CWverse co-stars.
Moving onto Caity Lotz, over the past couple of years, it’s become clear She and Candice have drifted and Candice has drifted from Shethority. Now, Candice has gotten MUCH hate and no one, not even Caity, has stuck up for her. However, she jumped at the chance to defend Danielle. pic.twitter.com/8wvWgf2rUT
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
And Arrow star Emily Bett Rickards, on the grounds that she did not mention Iris directly when discussing the friendships of her character, Felicity Smoak.
And lastly, we’re going to talk about Emily Bett Rickards. Despite the friendship between Iris and Felicity being quite popular, Emily only talked about Caitlin and Patty. Patty who is a character Emily, or Felicity, ever met. Felicity has been friends with Iris since season one. pic.twitter.com/G8AMijfuxM
— Jen ❤︎ (@softxiris) June 3, 2020
Related: The Flash Showrunner Andrew Kreisberg Fired For Sexual Harassment
Despite the dubious claims and even more questionable conclusions in logic found in the nearly 50-tweet long thread, @softxiris’ criticisms were retweeted over 2000 times and received resounding praise from fans of Patton.
Thank you for this, I have no idea what Candice has been through, this is so horrific. All these things happened yet CW didn’t even acknowledge it…
— Nicole | #𝑰𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝑴𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒂 (@nicole___27) June 3, 2020
I really never understood why y’all called DP a racist, but now I can say I do. Thanks for the info. Although I don’t agree with the EBR part, I feel like Felicity and Iris weren’t “friends” until COEX.
— Augus (@Augst0) June 3, 2020
Candice deserves so much better, it’s sad and angering she has to keep working with dp, dp deserves to be fired
— 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙞𝙚 ☽ (@irisforce) June 3, 2020
Related: The Flash’s Grant Gustin Responds to Andrew Kreisberg Sexual Harassment Allegations
These accusations of racism, coupled with the recent firing of her The Flash co-star Hartley Sawyer due to recently uncovered, mildly offensive tweets, quickly served as the basis for calls from members of the Iris West fandom for the CW to fire Panabaker from the show.
@ewrote Fire Danielle Panabaker next. She doesn’t respect the black female lead. She makes the set uncomfortable for her and she baits the racists against Candice. And she can’t act to save her life anyway. Plus, her character is useless. Need more reasons?
— Ikram Avery (@IkramEMM) June 8, 2020
its amazing that hartley sawyer was fired but danielle panabaker needs to be too. the amount of racial hate that she helped light a fire to for YEARS is insane and she needs to be held accountable for it @CW_TheFlash @ewrote
— naj • ceo of kory anders (@koryverse) June 8, 2020
First step. Next you need to fire Danielle Panabaker for her racist actions towards Candice Patton. https://t.co/9RQxf1dOfs
— Liz|💜 (@CPflashFan) June 8, 2020
with hartley sawyer out of the show, can ya’ll fire danielle panabaker and the rest of your racist casts @TheCW
— aima @ doing commissions!!!! (@aima015) June 8, 2020