It's become clear that "divisive" is just a euphemism for "makes white people uncomfortable"
Although every issue, if it doesn't enjoy unanimous support, is "divisive" in some way, I usually only see the term applied to people and issues that white folks don't want to address or even hear about because it makes them uncomfortable. That's been very clear in the recent dust-up over Bernie Sanders position on reparations, which he says he does not support because they are "divisive." But many of the issues that he endorses are divisive and that, in fact, seems to be the primary reason his supporters love him - they claim to want a fighter who isn't afraid to stand up to the powers that be and who will, in fact, get in their faces. Yet he's quick to turn around and walk away from this issue because it's "divisive."
I suspect that, in this instance, as in most others, "divisive" really means that white people who support him don't want to discuss reparations because it makes them uncomfortable. Not only is this a sensitive, complicated issue that requires more than a shallow, simple response, it also forces liberal whites to check their own privilege and to look at things in a different way than they are used to - outside of their comfort zone, not a pleasant or easy thing to do, especially for those who very self-satisfied with their own presumed perfection on all things racial because, for example, they didn't own slaves, they've never used the n-word, they have black friends and/or they marched with Dr. King.
So much easier to push it away with accusations that those who endorse reparations are being unreasonable and "divisive."
= new reply since forum marked as read
with my narrative.
And by you people I of course mean you dastardly LIBERALS 
My brain hurts from all the FACTS you people insist on mentioning
And not only that, but they (white, middle class people) benefit from their privilege being invisible to them, psychologically as well as materially.
White people very rarely perceive themselves as being implicated in or responsible for racism, in practice. At best, racism is something that "racists" or "Southerners" or "uneducated" whites are responsible for - but never educated, middle class white people with "progressive" racial views. At worst, racism is projected by whites onto people of color ("Why are they always complaining? They're not enslaved or denied civil rights anymore! Maybe they should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, like I did!"
. Either way, racism is externalized onto "those other people."
We have a long, long way to go, indeed.
