if this bigot neighbor was yours?

My husband and I own a house in Florida. We rarely go there because Mom's not comfortable there and it's a pretty good ride, about 11 hours. The house is secure and taken care of, paid for, insured and we have a gardener that comes bi-monthly and does all that needs to be done.

Despite that are quite familiar with many of the neighbors since my husbands Uncle was the original owner and we have in the past spent quite a bit of time down there. Originally the next door neighbor and then his son did our lawn but that turned bad, the son was having drinking and drug parties so we had him arrested. Needless to say the parents were not pleased with us, go figure!

The neighbors on the other side are a mother and daughter. The Mom is in her eighties, daughter in her sixties and they are lovely women. The son/brother was a professional gardener so he gladly took over from the criminal we had used previously. What a nice guy and he did a great job but recently he retired and moved away so they arranged for a new gardener both for the Mom/daughter and for us. Very nice thing for them to do don't you think?

With everything arranged we spoke to our new guy, amounts and payment arrangements were made, and we were pleased with the easy transition.

That was until we heard from "the neighbor."

She and her husband waited until he did the lawn twice and then called. Bill answered the phone and she carried on like my grass was a golden pond. The guy must be using a dull blade, he isn't spending enough time, he's not as good as the old guy, we're being taken to the cleaners blah blah blah.....

Then of course because any normal person couldn't be that interested in someone else's grass unless they were a weed or an ant she said..."my husband would be happy to do it." the plot thickens.....


But I couldn't help as I was listening to my husbands reactions to her part of the conversation that it had to be more. And I'm pretty good with my gut.

And of course it was.

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Then she said " that old ni**er (sorry I hate that word, because it's a hate word ) isn't doing a good job." Our new gardener happens to be an African American male.

My husband God bless his is a polite man, he listened told her he'd check into it and thanked her. I'm not sure what I would have done in this situation. 


I have to say I'm inclined to call her back and say something. Firstly I checked with the next door neighbor and she's pleased as punch with the new gardener who she also uses. The whole your gardener is doing a crappy job is a fabrication. Was the phone call  because she needed the money or was it something deeper was there a racial motive?


I know we've had experiences in our family that just made my blood boil where action was necessary. My daughter who is white has browsed in a store freely while the kids slept in the van with their father who is African American. When she came out and went into the store to see the item that she intended to buy the manager told him there was no browsing allowed!  


Some people are of the belief that it doesn't pay to speak up to a person like this about their attitudes, actions and the language they use. In the case of my neighbor; do you believe that she is what she is and she's not likely to change? (she's in her 50's)  Am I wasting my time if I talk to her about how her offensive her words were to me? 


I would be inclined to do so if I thought I wasn't wasting my breath.
I would be interested in your opinions on this situation.