In one of America's most racially segregated urban areas, 8 Mile Road is a chasm dividing blacks and whites into separate worlds.
The movie has already divided South African blacks.
Mr. Mandela's followers are justifiably suspicious of subterfuges meant to divide blacks and entrench white privileges under a democratic facade.
But two and a half years after he died, Mr. Garner's death divides blacks and whites as much as anything ever did.
Hirsch sees little hope of Tulsa's correcting historical wrongs without further dividing blacks who demand compensation and whites who disavow responsibility.
He used his plan for school choice, giving money to private and parochial schools, as a way to divide Catholics and blacks.
Instead, he portrayed himself as the victim of forces trying to divide blacks.
Unlike many things in Alabama, the fight over the landfill has divided traditional allies and united blacks and whites on both sides.
A Newsweek columnist says that the case did not divide blacks and whites; it merely revealed a breach that already existed.
He adds: "It is perfectly absurd to talk about dividing Indians and blacks.