The Flash Fans Accuse Actress Danielle Panabaker Of Racism, Call For Her Firing

Fans Call for Danielle Panabaker’s Firing, Accuse Female CWVerse Stars Of Racism Over Acknowledgement of Non-Iris West x Barry Allen’ Fan Ships

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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