"Neighbor who refuses to look or speak with me UNLESS my white husband is present"

My neighbor who lives right behind me often walks her dog past my house. I have tried on many occasions to greet her but she never acknowledges me. I’ve noticed her chatting up my husband, who happens to be white, a few times but surely she just hasn’t heard or seen me the various times when I’ve said hello right?

For example, I was in my front yard trimming my roses around the perimeter of my house and my neighbor, let’s call her Stephanie, walked by with her dog. I greeted Stephanie with a hello but she didn’t respond. Wondering if it was possible that she just didn’t see or hear me, I stood up from my stooped, clipping roses position and turned towards her and said hello again making sure to project my voice but still, she did not respond.

The other day while rushing out the door, I forgot my cell phone. Very quickly, I realized and my husband turned our car around to drop me off at our front door. I grabbed my cell phone from my room and was running back to the car when I encountered Stephanie. She was walking her dog right across my front walkway and there was no way for me to avoid her so I took a deep breath and thought, just say hi, I’m sure she’ll say hi back so I approached her with a warm, “Hi, how’s it going?”

Stephanie turned to her dog still not responding to me and said, “We don’t know her. We don’t know her.”

I was literally in shock. She did not look at me as I walked right past her and chose to talk to her dog instead of me.

The following day, my husband and I went for a walk in our neighborhood and we happened to cross paths with Stephanie. Upon seeing us, she gave a slight smile and said hello. I almost said hi back out of habit but took a cue from my husband who simply looked away.

When I’ve told this story to a few friends they have joked that maybe Stephanie just likes my husband or maybe I’ve done something to offend her but I have only ever said hello to Stephanie and though it may be true that she likes my husband, I have a feeling it’s more than that.