Dr. Cameron: Black defendants are ten times more likely to get a death sentence then white.
Dr. Foreman: Doesn�t mean we need to get rid of the death penalty � we just need to kill more white people.
Dr. Foreman: Doesn�t mean we need to get rid of the death penalty � we just need to kill more white people.
This episode "Acceptance" shows the ambivilence that Dr. Foreman feels for the African-American people as a whole. On the one hand, his looks peg him as African-American. On the other hand, his speech patterns are 'white' and he dresses "corporate doctor". He feels that he is above the Clarence character:
Dr. Foreman: Aren�t there better ways to spend our time?
House: Good question. What makes a person deserving? Is a man who cheats on his wife more deserving than a man who kills his wife?
Dr. Foreman: Uh� yeah. Actually, he is.
House: What about a child molester? Certainly not a good guy, but he didn�t kill anybody. Maybe he can get antibiotics, but no MRIs. What about you? What medical care should you be denied for being a car thief? Tell you what: the three of you work out a list of what medical treatments a person loses based on the crime they committed. I�ll review it when I get back.
House: Good question. What makes a person deserving? Is a man who cheats on his wife more deserving than a man who kills his wife?
Dr. Foreman: Uh� yeah. Actually, he is.
House: What about a child molester? Certainly not a good guy, but he didn�t kill anybody. Maybe he can get antibiotics, but no MRIs. What about you? What medical care should you be denied for being a car thief? Tell you what: the three of you work out a list of what medical treatments a person loses based on the crime they committed. I�ll review it when I get back.
House feels that no matter what, he is going to diagnose this patient, Clarence. As a death-row inmate he's not even supposed to leave the prison, but House gets him to the hospital by his usual round-about shenanigans. Dr. Foreman, as part of House's team, goes along with all the testing being carried out, but you see the animosity in him when he has to do the tests himself on Clarence. He even stops working on Clarence when the character's heart begins to fail.
It's clear though, that Dr. Foreman 'knows' where this character comes from:
Dr. Chase: How does an inmate on death row get his hands on heroin?
Dr. Foreman: Are you serious?
House: Man knows prisons. When we got a yachting question, we'll come to you.
Dr. Foreman: Are you serious?
House: Man knows prisons. When we got a yachting question, we'll come to you.
At the end of the episode, its revealed that the Clarence character has a tumor on his adrenal gland that is causing his rages that made him kill people. Removed, he's just another African-American male on prison's death-row. No more rages. Dr. Foreman, who had been opposed to even treating Clarence, decides to testify at an appeal for him.
The Dr. Foreman character is caught between 2 worlds - the world of his upbringing and the world of his making. As a doctor, he is respected. As an African-American male, he has something to prove to everyone around him. This episode neatly handles his "acceptance" of Clarence's crimes, as well as giving the character some deeper background.
!!! Did you just watch this on TV55? I was going to do this episode! lol I guess I have to go find that other episode of House that I was gonna do...
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Foreman feels he is above Clarence because of anything involving their race. He sees Clarence as a ruthless murderer. What's more, Clarence is scheduled to die at the hands of the state, so, in essence, the doctors are healing him to send him to die. I think the issues of the death penalty that the episode was trying to address are more of the reason for Foreman's opinions throughout the episode.
I think it's funny how they made a point to make jokes out of racial stereotypes at a few points in the episode, pretty much to show that that's all they are, jokes; yet, they decided to make Foreman a former gang member anyway. That type of "rising above" approach is problematic, as it perpetuates the idea that somehow certain behaviors, traits that are often attributed to "culture," are somehow intrinsic, and have to be overcome. House even creates a juxtaposition between the two black characters:
Foreman: A person's upbringing and their biology are completely different.
House: Yeah. See, you only overcame one of them. Well, let's just give Clarence a free pass, hmmm? Which, is probably going to piss off all those other pheo sufferers who managed to control their rage attacks and become lawyers, race car drivers, or even doctors. Removing that tumor puts a stop to those random shots adrenaline, it doesn't absolve him.
A troubling perpetuation of the idea of intrinsic cultural traits (that are, of course, bound to race) that must be overcome.
Your comments are most illuminating. I had a little trouble deciding how to approach the characters in this episode. My original plan was to write about the Clarence character, but, in re-watching the episode (I saw it when it was first broadcast) my focus changed. Dr. Foreman was definitely the more interesting character to write about in this episode.
ReplyDeleteI like the show 'House' because of two things - 1. The "House" character is a complete train-wreck of a person. He is rude, crude, obnoxious to the nth-degree. His side comments on cases, his co-workers, boss, patients and life in general make you think.
2. The way that this show handles human reactions, House not withstanding. The characters that interact with House make for VERY interesting TV, which is a rarity these days.
Thanks for your input!