Topics Business

Question 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

Accepted:
February 5, 2007

Comments

Insofar as you function as a witness, as someone to whom a story is told and who recounts it, I see no ethical problem. Reporters and journalists interview rather worse characters than your client, type up the sometimes dreadful things their sources say, and then publish it all. There nothing unethical in giving an accurate portrait of a flawed person or life.

Your case is different in at least two respects. You accept money from the person you are portraying, and you may be expected to (and perhaps usually do) present your characters more favorably than you would do if you sought a balanced and accurate portrait. These two respects may or may not be related. Quite apart from the money, there are reasons to present an old person in favorable light to his or her family, including those who will read the story much later.

Both differences make your situation ethically problematic. By portraying a racist in a favorable light, you may appear to share his attitudes and reinforce them in others. By accepting money for a favorable portrait, you may misrepresent or "sell out" your moral convictions. Leaving your name off the cover does not address these problems. What you do is not made morally more acceptable by the fact that no one knows who you are.

A good way to avoid these problems might be to bring into the story your reaction to his jokes. For example, you could include somewhere in your account of your conversations about his life that little exchange you recounted in your question. This would make quite clear where you stand. And it would also make quite clear your mutual understanding: that he hired you as a professional, to convey his story, not to approve of it.