Obama opened up a can of worms that has, unfortunately for him, worked against him.

Last week, in a speech he gave to respond to his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama heaped praise upon the preacher, saying, “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother.”

That last remark…well, turned a few heads on the right side of the blogosphere last week.

But before we get to that, let’s get to why he was trying to apologize for his association with Wright. He was being criticized because of the fact that Wright had said some things in the past that could be either considered racist or anti-American. It’s been reported already what he said, so I won’t repeat it here. But what Obama’s speech ended up doing was not bringing people together, but tearing them apart.

In the aftermath of the speech, the mainstream media praised Obama up and down for being a unifier. Those on the right side of the aisle saw the speech as very divisive. What was meant to start a conversation on race has only started a conversation on how much the blacks hate whitey.

Some bloggers started to question whether there really would be a serious conversation on race after this. The only thing it has really done is gave the MSM a reason yet again to praise Obama.

But luckily, the average person isn’t going for it. Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit.com reported that the conversation isn’t turning into what can we do to reach out to each other, but what is really said amongst blacks in their own communities and in the black churches. The average person in Philadelphia, soon after the speech was made, felt it played too much to the elite and that Obama should have disowned his pastor.

But what really got a lot of hackles up was the comment about his white grandmother, who helped to raise him. On a sports radio show, Obama called his grandmother a “typical white person” for being afraid of strangers. I’m sure she was thrilled to hear that. Michelle Malkin, Allahpundit at Hot Air, Ann Coulter, and many other commentators and bloggers have expressed their disgust at the idea that he would throw his own grandmother under the bus for political gain.

The national conversation isn’t going to happen, despite what the mainstream media thinks. The only thing the speech did for this country was open old wounds and just show how racist some in the black community really are.