In early-season episodes, Doug Ross was sometimes less than understanding with adults and teenagers who were different from himself. For example: He spoke to a black woman as if he assumed she was on the cleaning staff, but she was Dr. Hicks. When a new worker from Poland introduced herself, he didn't try to pronounce her name but just dubbed her "Bob." When a teenage boy expressed worry that he might be gay, Doug made him wait a long time for a psych consult instead of trying to talk with the teenager himself.

Any comments, further examples, etc.? I have not seen all the episodes. Was there ever a discussion of this with anyone, such as Carol? Did he have any friction with nonwhite, foreign, or gay staff members that could be related to this rather than professional differences? Did his behavior change in later seasons?

-- Driad (botteron@alum.mit.edu), June 13, 2000

Answers

Obviously, I am very partial to Doug, but I really don't think that he was discriminatory, for lack of a better word. Your first example with Dr. Hicks from Blizzard is understandable; I didn't know why they had him say that because I don't see Doug as racist. Dr. Hick's WAS dressed down a bit too, but I really don't know about that one. Otherwise, I think that Doug was just pretty much biased against any signs of abusive people, no matter what color. In one episode, I have no idea when, he defied Kerry and gave a black teenager some meds that Kerry believed he only wanted because he was a drug addict. It's just situational. He didn't care about his color. With Bob, I think it was just for some "Doug humor", not to be arrogant, and with the gay boy, Haleh made a comment to him about being homophobic, to which he denied, but then must have realized he was acting homophobic, and went to talk to him, but it was too late. He did strenously offer to talk to him anytime he needed. Doug learns his lessons, and there are A LOT of them.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), June 13, 2000.