Ethics: I write people's life stories for a living. I've been working with a man

Ethics: I write people's life stories for a living. I've been working with a man

Ethics: I write people's life stories for a living. I've been working with a man for two years, great guy, 78, who wanted to add a joke section to his book. My books are not commercially published, just for families. I was enthusiastic until he started telling the jokes, many of which are racist and one includes the N word in the punchline. I once told him that I was having trouble with some of his jokes, saying, "Let's just say I was raised by two civil rights activists." He said, "You have to be professional about it. This is my story, not yours." That's true. Very true. But typically my name goes on the book under the title, "as told to____" One option is to leave my name off. This is my livelihood, I'm a single parent and he's a big client, so I have to think this over carefully. Very very difficult for me to think of typing those jokes but I don't want to sell out my own values. On the other hand, I'm not going to change him, don't want to change him--I'm the witness of his life, not the judge. The book is published ONLY for his family, maybe ten copies, and they already know him, warts and all. Any thoughts on this subject? Thank you, Kathy

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