Several civil rights groups are saying racial discrimination abounds in the high-tech workplace, especially in Silicon Valley. This news has startled many observers, who say it goes directly against the popular point of view that the high-tech industry is the "ultimate meritocracy," USA Today reports.

A 1999 study of 250 Silicon Valley firms conducted by the Coalition for Fair Employment in Silicon Valley found that of 142,000 workers, eight percent were Hispanic and only four percent were African-American. This is significantly different from the San Francisco area itself, where 14 percent of the workforce is Hispanic and 8 percent of workers are African-American, USA Today reports.

In Congress, the National Urban League and other African-American leaders are fighting the government’s plan to double the number of H-1B visas, which allow foreign high-tech workers to take jobs in the U.S. These organizations say technology firms that hire immigrants are overlooking qualified U.S. minorities, the newspaper reports.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has increased its San Francisco office to include 50 investigators, but the EEOC denies it is specifically targeting technology firms, USA Today reports.

High-tech industry leaders say claims that they discriminate based on race is absurd, and that the shortage of high-tech workers ensures that anyone who is qualified can find a job.

The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, led by Jesse Jackson, is also continuing to lobby high-tech firms to train and hire more minorities.

"Silicon Valley prides itself on being a unique meritocracy, but of course there's discrimination there just as there is in every other industry," Butch Wing, a spokesman for the Rainbow/PUSH coalition, told the newspaper.

The newspaper article also lists several specific instances where people claim they faced discrimination while working for well-known high-tech firms.

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