First please be sure that the person really sent it. Was it accompanied by text that you believe the person wrote?

If not, it could be "malware". Viruses that arrive in mail, grab addresses from the recipients address book, then send themselves to the recipients contacts used to be very common.

Isn't a conversation with the sender called for? Make sure they really are the sender?

This is a no-brainer. There is no question about what you must do. You must inform your own management, and her management must be contacted immediately with the demand that you receive a personal apology, a professional apology, and that she be removed from your account. If that is not done, you will take your business elsewhere. This is equivalent to her sending you this same message on their company letterhead, and the vendor absolutely needs to know what their employees are doing in their name.

If I found out that one of my employees pulled a stunt like that they would be fired on the spot. This should not bother you; nobody so acutely lacking social and business acumen should be permitted to hold a job until they learn how to behave in a business environment.

You actually have to ASK? Yes, you report the sender. If there's an excuse, let it be made, but brushing it under the rug is as reprehensible as sending it.

Christ, man up, will you?

Excellent point about malware, in which case the sender's management absolutely needs to be informed because they have a major security hole in their network that is actively harming their business.

One of m favorite thoughtful people is hip hop DJ and commentator Jay Smooth. He more effectively addresses this issue by focusing on the behavior, not the person. Check out his specific role modeling :

http://www.illdoctrine.com/2009/06/allow_me_to_reintroduce_myself.html

Don't go running to anyone's boss. Instead, confront the vendor. Say, "I found this offensive. In the future, please do not forward this type of material to me." Then let it go. If she sends something like this to you again, then you can report it to whoever you need to report it, because it has become harassment.

This isn't about punishment, right? Or loudly demonstrating your own moral superiority? If you really are interested in changing a heart and mind, icy disapproval is the best way. She sent you this joke (unfunny as it was) in an effort to establish some kind of rapport. When she discovers it backfired, it will give her pause. People are very social animals and most try not to repeat behavior that lowers their standing in another's eyes. If instead you tattle, it will probably just feed the sense of grievance that likely gave rise to the views you find objectionable. Racism is bad, but being a member of the Stasi is no better.

You upper-middle-class Salon types are pretty amusing yourselves with the "tell the teacher" philosophy that everything gets better when Wrong Thought is reported to the Authorities. You've led very sheltered, privileged lives, and you take that as an entitlement to be cruel to the clueless with a Good Conscience.

The correct response to your racist vendor lady is, "Beeyotch, if you send me another one of these I'm going to come over and shove it in your <<insert random feature here>>." She will not dare report you .. think of the fun you can have!

As often as possible.

I bet there was a link in it.

Tell her/him: "I got some malware/spyware spoofed from your address. I knew you wouldn't send me a racist cartoon, so I wanted to let you know."

If the vendor did send it, you gave this person a face saving heads up to not do it again. If they didn't, they can fix their computer.

It's a win, either way you go.

Malware? Any corporate shop that has set up a position of "account manager" has invested in a copy of Norton or McAfee, or even AVG on the cheap. Unless the email came between midnight and 6am, I would discount that theory.

I work in an industry where despite the need of a four year degree to get in the door, and a graduate degree to get ahead, one runs into some more...unevolved..senses of humor. So here's my advice:

Simply hit them where it hurts. When it comes up for contract renewal,dump the vendor. If the vendor is the one-of-a-kind, too precious to lose types, ask for a new account manager, and say you just feel that you didn't connect with your current one. That'll come up in the next review, and stand out more then 10 good complements that come from their other account. Businesses are looking for *any* reason to deny their people a pay raise.

Or, you can go the nuclear route. A friend and I each come from small towns, and still get similar e-mails to the one you got, only they come from our relatives, parents, siblings. So we photo-shopped two prominent male FoxNews "commentators" whose last names rhyme with "heck" and "manatee" in oral copulation, and that's our standard response to send back. Thanksgiving will be fun this year.

LOL, heck and manatee.

My first reaction is to tell the person "I find this offensive. Please don't send anything like it again."

Or you could go the NSFW route, as when my friend insisted on sending me all sorts of pictures of naked men, up to and including full frontal nudity (in cartoon and "live action" form.)

I told her to warn me, so I wouldn't open it and have my boss standing behind me as some outsized member thrusts itself onto the monitor.

You could go the neutral, "It's NSFW so don't send it here" route. Just get it to stop coming to your inbox, without comment on its merits.

But I personally would still have the need to tell the racist fuckhead that he's a racist fuckhead.

If this is a vendor that SELLS you stuff, and you can buy your stuff from somewhere else, steer the orders to someone else.

If ths is a vendor that sells your product for you, it's more complicated. Not so much about tattling but get the cooperation of your supervisor in how to address this so your job remains secure while your sensibilities stop being assaulted.