I've heard that your group plans to buy $100,000 worth of stock in Silicon Valley companies, presumably to agitate for minority hiring issues at shareholders meetings. The problem is, you may be going after the wrong target.

In more than 15 years of covering technology companies, I've met precisely four black CEO-level executives and only a handful of black managers. I often wonder why so many people from Punjab work at technology companies and so few from California's East Palo Alto or Oakland.

While it's true that companies hire all the whites they can, they also hire all the Asians, East Indians and Europeans they can--and blacks and Hispanics, too. I won't say Silicon Valley is color-blind, but among the senior managers I know, I have never detected a trace of racism. I haven't detected much of a taste for affirmative action, either.

The real issue separating blacks from tech jobs is education. The imported workers tend to be the cream of the crop, and they either work cheaply or can find people back home who are willing to do so. My guess is if an African-American showed up in Silicon Valley with the same educational credentials and work experience as a noncitizen, the American would be hired first, regardless of color. But those applicants just don't exist.

If you can send us qualified technical workers, we'll hire them. I've often thought that just a short course in Unix programming or local area network troubleshooting could get young minorities into entry-level tech jobs. It won't make them the next Bill Gates, but it could open the door.

Speaking of Gates, he's one of your best friends in helping accomplish minority hiring goals. The billions of dollars he's giving to libraries and educational programs will spark some imaginations and attract a more diverse generation of tech workers. While "progressive" Silicon Valley executives demand that politicians "do something" about education, Gates is setting a personal example.

Technology companies and their executives should have more internships, apprenticeships and job training programs. They should do more than just talk about the need for better schools and actually recruit more blacks and other minorities. But the problem isn't so much with technology companies--it's with an educational system that's shortchanging millions of young Americans, without regard to color.