What should you do if your client is a racist?

Last month former NPR correspondent Juan Williams made headlines with his remarks and subsequent termination.  NY Times Opinionator blogger Tobin Harshaw wrote that if you start a sentence with "I'm not a bigot, but..." it's not going to end well. Kind of like "if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck."I recently ran smack into this issue when a client of mine made a racist remark during a conversation we were having. It did not pertain to the project I was working on for her; it was a personal story. My first reaction was something along the lines of, "oh no, really? not you..." Disappointment, disgust, and then confusion about how to handle it set in. Should I fire this client? Does she have a right to her opinions as long as I'm not forced to produce work that represents them? Graphic designers are often conflicted about having to work on projects for services, causes, or products they don't believe in. But what about working for clients whose behavior is objectionable?In this case I haven't decided yet. It's not a big job, but she is in a jam. I will either bow out now, or get her out of the jam and then end the relationship. This decision isn't that difficult. Luckily my livelihood doesn't depend on this client. I've seen other situations where the client is not mine alone, but the client of a larger organization that I'm working for. Often the client is a member of a team and it's a matter of "one bad apple." In cases where it might not be easy to fire the client perhaps the prudent path is to tell them you're not comfortable with their remarks. I know someone who tells the offender to please keep such remarks to themselves because his "sister-in-law," "nephew" or some other fabricated relative is of that ethnicity. He assures me this usually shuts people up quickly and also elicits an apology. At first I thought perhaps the lie was unethical, but if you take the world view that we are all brothers and sisters on the planet earth, it makes perfect sense.Most of us have had to deal with instances of racism as well as sexism, agism, and other forms of discrimination at one time or another--whether it's aimed directly at us, or we are passive listeners. It may come from a client, a boss, a co-worker, relative, or even a friend. At the very least it's uncomfortable when it happens and often it leaves us outraged.What do you when racism rears its ugly head?