THEY APPEAR to be an anomaly: white, Jewish and Jamaican.

But the bigotry Joan and Richard Davidson have encountered since they moved to Toronto nearly 20 years ago is a stark illustration of racial prejudice and the discrimination wrought by negative stereotypes about Jamaicans.

When the couple fled the island's political instability with their three young sons in 1975, Richard had 17 years of experience in the insurance field.

For six weeks, he called in response to newspaper ads without landing a single interview.

``We knew it was because of his accent, because we realized that the reputation of the Jamaicans up here was not that great,'' says Joan, 62, during an interview at the couple's comfortable Thornhill home, which is filled with Jamaican paintings and carvings.

``To put it in absolute terms, they figured that he was black and they didn't want to employ him. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. Our Canadian friends told us he should send out résumés with his picture attached.''

Fortunately, a family contact stepped in and arranged meetings for Richard at all the firms he'd been soliciting. He got a job in the claims department of one of the country's largest brokerages.

A few years later, an associate in New York City recommended him to a family-run company in Toronto that was seeking a broker with international experience.

``I had a great interview with the son, who was very satisfied with me, but when I met with the father he said, `I'd really like to employ you because you certainly know your business, but the type of clientele that I have, they wouldn't be very happy with the phone being answered by a West Indian voice,' '' recalls Richard.

Around the same time, the couple was looking for a townhouse to rent.

``We just couldn't get to first base, because every ad we saw in the paper and we called, they kept telling us the places were taken,'' Joan remembers.

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``One was in an area I thought we would really like to live in and the woman had told me the place was rented. But you can get a feel when someone is not really being honest with you and she was sort of stuttering. I knew exactly what it was, because it was early in the morning and the paper had only just come out.

``I went across the road and got my Canadian neighbour to call. The woman (landlord) asked her when she would like to come and see the place, when not 10 minutes before she'd told me the place was rented.''

So often has the couple been rebuffed because of their Caribbean-inflected English that Richard has coined the phrase ``auditory discrimination'' to describe it.

``We can't get through the front door if we approach by telephone,'' says the amiable 63-year-old, who founded a successful brokerage in 1979. ``We got to the stage where we wouldn't waste time telephone canvassing. If we had to call people, we'd get our sons to do it.''

While most Jamaicans are descended from the black Africans who were brought to the island as slaves in the 17th century to work the sugarcane plantations, the island's motto ``Out of Many, One People'' reflects a diverse populace that includes the offspring of European settlers, Chinese and East Indian indentured servants and Arab merchants.

The Davidsons, who are descended from Jews who migrated to Jamaica from Italy, Portugal and Spain in the 18th century, say the telephone response to their accent has caused them inconvenience, frustration and indignation in seeking employment, housing and clients.

However, the roadblocks melt if they approach by referral, or face to face when their accent is often mistaken for South African, Welsh or Australian.

``They admit it,'' Richard says. ``They say to you, `I was very noncommittal' or `I wouldn't deal with you because I thought you were black and I had this picture of a black two-bit drug addict,' or `What can a Jamaican know?'

``I don't mind them thinking I'm black, because you are what you are, but it's the connotation that if you are black you are stupid and a drug addict or a criminal and you live a lifestyle that is not acceptable in the Canadian civilization.''

So, what happens to all the Jamaican callers who turn up and are black?

``I wouldn't live in this country if I was a black person,'' Richard says bluntly. ``I don't think I'd be given a fair shake.''

The many black Jamaicans he's known who have done well and succeeded had to overcome terrible odds, he says.

Joan adds: ``It (their accent) made life a lot tougher and sometimes it really hurt us. But we do our own thing and if you don't want to deal with us, that's your problem. Where I feel very badly is for the people that don't have the education, but are decent people and they just don't know how to handle the situation and they get frustrated.''

The couple's encounters bolster the findings of a Toronto Star survey in which black Jamaicans felt there was more prejudice against their community than against others.

In a survey of eight ethnic groups done for The Star by Goldfarb Consultants, black Torontonians said they faced more discrimination than any other ethnic group. Of the blacks polled, 88 per cent of Jamaicans perceived the greatest biases against them.

A total of 187 blacks were interviewed out of 1,575 people and eight ethnic groups for the Star's Beyond 2000 project, a year-long study of Greater Toronto's growing ethnic and cultural mix.

In the survey of the black community, 59 per cent identified themselves as Caribbean, 31 per cent as African and 10 per cent as other. More than half of those from the Caribbean identified themselves as Jamaicans.

According to the poll, nearly three in four Jamaicans believe their community is treated unfairly by police, 68 per cent feel mistreated by Canada Customs and half perceive unfair treatment by the courts. Three-quarters of Jamaicans feel the media treat the black community unfairly.

In interviews, prominent people in the Jamaican community agree with the respondents.

``The perception is that we are these thugs and pretty much close to animals the way we are portrayed sometimes,'' says Sandra Whiting, president of the Black Business and Professional Association, who moved here from Jamaica 25 years ago.

Sensational media coverage of high-profile crimes involving Jamaicans in recent years has affected the entire community, she says.

``When you keep seeing yourself portrayed in negative ways, it has an impact, like the poor self-esteem of our young people.

``Years ago, I used to cringe when I heard someone from my country had committed a crime. Now I say I am not the person doing that and I refuse to be seen only in that context, but it can be very upsetting.''

Whiting is not suggesting journalists ignore crimes committed by Jamaicans; what she yearns for is equal reporting of the community's achievements.

Jamaican-born Scarborough North MPP Alvin Curling, a teetotaller and non-smoker, says he's been dogged by stereotypes.

``There is an expectation that all Jamaicans drink white rum and smoke dope,'' he says. ``People can't believe that I lived in Jamaica and never even had a whiff of marijuana.''

He's concerned about the association of criminals with a country they have long left behind.

``I have spent more than half my life here, I am a Canadian Jamaican,'' Curling says. ``I don't see what purpose it serves to say a Jamaican was arrested when that person has been a citizen here for 25 years. What does it matter where someone was born?''

Toronto newspapers have done Jamaicans a disservice, says anthropology professor and anti-racism expert Frances Henry. She has just completed a study of racist discourse in the media for the Ryerson School of Journalism.

Henry analyzed The Toronto Sun, The Star and The Globe and Mail between 1994 and 1997. In her research, which is to be released later this summer, she found that 38.3 per cent of all articles that dealt with Jamaicans involved sports and entertainment. Another 33 per cent of articles featuring Jamaicans dealt with crime, justice, deportation, immigration and social programs. The remaining articles dealt with travel, food and other areas.

``I think Jamaicans are the most stigmatized group,'' Henry says. ``Aside from the good they do when they entertain us or win medals in sports, the perception is that they are a problem people.

``Even when reporting about Jamaica, the stories are about crime in Jamaica, political tension or police brutality,'' Henry says. ``Where are the stories about the general vibrancy of Jamaican culture, the superb accomplishments of its people, its serious musicians, its excellent literature and poetry?''

Only the Vietnamese come close to incurring as much negative press, she says.

Henry cites the media for ``inadvertent activity,'' rather than ``malicious racism.''

``We need greater sensitization of the media, they should have greater dialogue with the communities they write about,'' she says.

`` `Jamaican' is now generic for `black'. A lot of people who are not from Jamaica want to distance themselves from it because of the way they are stigmatized. And that, of course, promotes disunity in the community.''

Michelle Lyn has been privy to many unpleasant comments about her compatriots.

``Because I don't look like what people think is Jamaican, people do have reactions around me about Jamaicans that are negative,'' says Lyn, who is fifth-generation Jamaican and Chinese.

``It's really bad, but some people I know are just afraid to be around Jamaicans because of the reputation that they see or hear about.''

She was 6 when her family moved to Canada, and although she can slip into the island's patois at whim, to the uninitiated ear, her speech has few vestiges of the Caribbean.

Lyn's family ran a popular Jamaican grocery store in Scarborough for 13 years and she is a first vice-president of the Chinese Caribbean Association.

The soft-spoken 29-year-old, who is home on maternity leave from her job as an event co-ordinator, wonders if in an ironic twist some Jamaicans wind up involved in crime because they can't get a fair break from society.

``I honestly believe a lot of them don't get a chance that other people would get because they are Jamaican,'' she says as she relaxes at her Markham home with 4-week-old Alexandra.

Richard Davidson has had similar thoughts.

``How many Jamaican youth are pushed into crime because of the rejection from society?'' he asks.

``If every time you try something, you butt your head against a brick wall, and that doesn't damage the wall, pretty soon you give up. I do think there is a certain degree of that.

``And I do think there is a tendency for the Canadians to walk away from a black kid who is having a problem because they think that they're stupid or they think that they're basically a problem anyway so why bother.

``If they would just give people a chance, treat them as individuals and get over the colour or the race or the culture or whatever, I'm sure it would work out.''

The community does not support law breakers, Whiting adds.

``I think people have to realize that the 90 per cent of Jamaicans who are law-abiding have no truck with criminals,'' she explains. ``We do not support criminal activity, but at the same time, what we worry about is: Have they got the right person? Are people being treated fairly?

``People say, `How come all of you are always defending criminals?' It's not a matter of defending criminals; it's defending the right of Canadians who live here to be treated fairly and I think that that is not always happening and I guess Jamaicans do feel that they are picked on more.''

In order to shatter the stereotypes, members of the Jamaican community must promote their achievements, says Joan Davidson, who is an active member of the Jamaican Canadian Association.

``We have to get Canadians to come to our functions so they can see all different types of decent, respectable Jamaicans,'' she says.

Curling concurs.

``I think it will take Jamaicans to clear up these misconceptions about us by educating and informing and continuing to be assertive,'' he says. ``One thing people very well know is that you cannot legislate an attitude.''

Curling likes to think that some of the bad rap Jamaicans get stems from their character strengths.

``It comes from a positive assertiveness of Jamaicans. If it's discrimination or a job opportunity they will go after it in a very aggressive and assertive way.''

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