article_snippet: Starbucks asked Starbucks local baristas to have conversations about race.
article_snippet: But a national coffee shop chain waded into an area of social conflict that is as old as the slave ships and as modern as stop-and-frisk policing.
article_snippet: A barista writing "Race Together" on cups was called an affront to mornings and coffee -- such important conversations belonged inside a hallowed institution, not a common coffee shop, where apparently people no longer chat.
article_snippet: The nastiness drove Starbucks's communications chief briefly off Twitter.
article_snippet: Then, after barely a week, Starbucks shut down the whole darned thing, pushing ahead with a hiring and media initiative instead.
article_snippet: Not because of a harmless coffee cup, but because we have a real race problem and we need solutions.
highlights_snippet: Starbucks quickly shut down Starbucks program of asking baristas to talk to the public about race .
  
highlights_snippet: Forget the storm of tweets criticizing the coffee company; we need a vigorous conversation on race .