I know that there’s still a big population of Latin@s that don’t care for Obama. I am growing to like the man–he seems to be actually following through on a lot of his promises, and for that I give the man props even if politically I am much more to the left than he is.

But there’s still a lot of Latin@s that don’t like him–which is ironic because there’s a growing number of white folks that are going the KKK way–because of him and us. From CNN comes this report:

The center’s report, “The Year in Hate,” found the number of hate groups grew by 54 percent since 2000. The study identified 926 hate groups — defined as groups with beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people — active in 2008. That’s a 4 percent jump, adding 38 more than the year before.

What makes this year’s report different is that hate groups have found two more things to be angry about — the nation’s first African-American president and an economy that is hemorrhaging jobs. For the past decade, Latino immigration has fueled the growth of hate groups.

Reading the whole report is pretty terrifying. And I am in no way meaning to imply a sense of “solidarity” (or that Latin@s should “like” Obama) between Obama and Latin@s just because we’re both being targeted by hate groups.

Rather instead, I guess I’m wondering is there any way to connect the politics of Obama (whatever that may mean to individuals or communities of Latin@s) to the politics of “Latin@” or “Immigration” or “Illegal immigrant” (which inevitably means Latin@)? Not sure if I’m being clear here–it’s sort of an abstract idea I’m working with.

I guess to put it at it’s very basic kernal of thought–I wonder if there’s any links between Latin@s and Obama that we need to think through on an individual or community level?

What do you think?