Client points out one man in a stock photo I'm editing for him and says: 

Client: I know our service has to appeal to all kinds of people, but this one fellow... can you make him look less black? So he looks more 'tech-savvy-urban-social-media-influencer' black and less 'wandered-out-of-the-jungle-only-talks-in-click-language' black.

WTF.

I work for a real estate developer. We had a client who, when finally decided on a flat to buy, found that the parking spot that they liked had already been bought by another client.

Client: I'm not racist but you sold it to a foreigner rather than to us on purpose so you could sell me  a more expensive parking spot and scoop a bigger commission.

Well, do long as you're not racist.

[Editor's note: we recently published a shorter version of this story, but it was resubmitted with additional details that we decided was worth a revisit. Enjoy! Or cringe. Whichever is appropriate].

I was hired to create a short animated ad for a start up company. In the process I designed a handful of mother and baby characters. I made the main mother Indian, but it was in a simple, cartoony style, so she could be interpreted as another race.

Client: These moms need to be more aspirational. Can she look more like this?

He sent stock photos and clip art of white blonde women. 

Me: Okay... Just so I know, is there a specific ethnicity that you would her to be?

Client: Well, if we had more characters it would be nice to have some diversity. But since there's only one mom she should be white.

Me: ...

Client: What? She should look like the majority of the population. 

Me: Okay.

Client: You know what, we've changed our minds. We want one shot of ten diverse mom characters.

I design and send them.

Client: We don't like this mom wearing a hijab. Let's replace her with an Asian mom.

Me: There's already one Asian mom. But fine, here. 

I design a mom with straight black hair, pale skin, a rounder face, and almond-shaped eyes.  

Client: Can we make her look more asian? We didn't really get that she was asian.

Me: sigh

I’m a guitar player, and was playing with a soul band based in London, England. We only played our own original material. The singer was black, everyone else was white, and we had a reasonable following in the area.

On one occasion the bandleader accepted an invitation to play at a wedding in a small town not far from London. He assured us that the bride had seen us play and wanted us to perform that same show on her big day. Okay, then! So we got to the venue, and the bride’s father told us to start playing some light jazz and bossa nova type stuff by other artists while the guests arrive. We explained that we were hired to play our material – that’s what had been discussed and agreed beforehand. Still, the keyboard player got up and tinkled some light mood music. We kept the peace.

Showtime was still a while away, and the bride’s father told us to play popular hits that everyone knew, then do our set. We explained again that we weren’t a cover band, and that we were only hired to play our show for the reception but that just pissed him off further. Keyboard player kept playing mood music, father of the bride disappeared.

Finally, we were on stage behind a curtain ready for the countdown…but had no singer. He was missing. The start time came…and still no singer. All of a sudden, he appears at the side of the stage in tears and distressed. The father of the bride and several other large angry men had cornered our singer, calling him the n-word and threatening him with a beating; and the smashing up of all of our gear unless the performance was fantastic. After all, it was his daughter’s special day!

We huddled like a football team and decided to play for our lives. It was a great show and they loved us. We got the fuck out of there afterwards as fast as possible. Several weeks later we received payment… for exactly half of what was agreed.

I'd been working on a collateral project with a client. She loved poster 1. But when I submitted poster 2 there was a problem. 

Client: This poster is beautiful. But I'm afraid I can't use it.

Me: Can I ask why this poster won't work so I can make improvements? 

Client: Well. It's too dark. 

Me: I've used the color pallete discussed though. 

Client: But the woman is too dark. 

Me: Seriously? 

Client: She's black. 

Me: So... 

Client: Black women don't sing classical music. I just can't use this. 

Client fired. Client fired so hard. 

I was working on an ad for an area hospital using a photo that depicts a married couple with a child sitting on a porch. In the photo, the husband was white, the wife was Asian.

Client: The ad design looks great! But we're not sure about the photo you chose.

Me: If you want, I can search for a different photo, or if you have a different photo in mind, I can replace it with that one.

Client: It's just that the wife doesn't match our target demographic. Could you maybe find a different face and Photoshop it over hers?

Me: ...I'm sorry could I what now?

Client: Could you find a different face and replace hers with it? Maybe someone more in our demographic? We don't want to lose such a perfect photo.

I'm sorry to admit that I proceeded to make up a bunch of reasons why it would be much more affordable for them to just pick a different photo, INSTEAD of calling them out for being grossly racist, which is what I wanted to do.

I maintain a professional presence on social media and most of my clients are Facebook friends.  Towards the end of a status meeting one day:

Client: I notice that you have many friends of color on Facebook.

They then started complaining about their blue-collar workers, most of whom are racialized.

His complaints made this clear.

I was asked to illustrate an ad for a client.

Client:  Let’s make the child ambiguously racial. We want this to have a wide appeal.

I gave the drawing of the kid a middle tone complexion.

Client: Hm, can we lighter on the skin?

I changed the skin color to a tanned complexion.

Client: Can we go lighter?

I made the illustration fully Caucasian with blond hair and blue eyes.

Client: Perfect!

I design monuments and other wayfinding systems. Recently I had a request to design a monument for an apartment complex in another state, so I researched the types of monument being used in the area and submitted a design of a double faced ground sign with a masonry base.

Client: Can you raise the monument off the ground about 7 feet?

Me: You want a super tall base under the sign face?

Client: No. I want it on posts or something. I need to see under and through it.

Me: Ummm.. Okay. Why do you need to see under it?

Client: The blacks around here are always hiding behind things. So I want to make sure they can’t hide behind the sign.

Whoa.