*Actress Candice Patton is speaking out about the racist abuse she suffered from fans of The CW series “The Flash.”
The series debuted in 2014 and Patton (who plays Iris West) has since become a fan favorite. The West character had long been portrayed as a white redhead so Patton’s casting was met with backlash. Now she is opening up about having a lack of “support systems” amid the harassment, Page Six reports.
On the debut episode of “The Open Up Podcast,” Patton discussed her experience as DCTV’s first prominent Black actress.
“It’s also a very dangerous place to be in when you’re one of the first, and you’re receiving so much backlash from it and there is no help,” she said.
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“Now, people understand it a little better, and they understand how fans can be racist, especially in genre, misogynistic all of that. But at the time it was kind of like: ‘Yeah that’s how fans are, but whatever.’ Even with the companies I was working with, CW and Warner Brothers, that was their way of handling it,” she continued.
“I think we know better now that it’s not OK to treat your talent that way and to let them go through this abuse and harassment. But for me, in 2014, there were no support systems, no one was looking out for that. It was just free range to get abused every day… There were no social media protocols in place to protect me. They just let all that stuff sit there,” said Patton.
“It’s just not enough to make me your lead female and say, ‘Look at us, we’re so progressive, we check the box,’ … It’s great, but it’s like you’ve put me in the ocean alone, around sharks,” she continued.
“It’s great to be in the ocean, but I could get eaten alive out here,” she said. “Just because you put us in a fancy Hollywood TV set or film set with the hair and makeup and you assume we’re safe. We’re not safe.”
What she found especially frustrating was how vastly different her co-stars were treated, Cinema Blend reports.
“It’s more so the day-to-day stuff that affects me, like the protocols in place [and] the things I see happening for my white counterpart that’s not happening to me. Seeing how I’m treated differently than other people. Seeing how I’m not protected by the network and the studio. Not promoted in the same way they would promote other people sometimes. Those were the things that not necessarily hurt me but frustrated me.”
Patton nearly quit the show due to racial abuse. She ultimately decided to stay and will reportedly begin filming Season 9 this summer.
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