The CEO of McDonald’s sparked a protest at the company’s Chicago headquarters for texting Mayor Lori Lightfoot that the parents of two minors killed by gun violence had “failed those kids.”
A text between Mickey D’s top executive Chris Kempczinski sent to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot shortly after she visited the company headquarters in April, accused the parents of Jaslyn Adams, 7, who was gunned down outside a Chicago McDonalds, and Adam Toledo, 13, who was shot by police a month prior, of negligence.
“P.s. tragic shootings last week, both at our restaurant yesterday and with Adam Toldeo [sic]. With both, the parents failed those kids which I know is something you can’t say. Even harder to fix,” he wrote on April 19.
“Thanks, Chris. Great to see you in person. Such a great work space, and your folks were terrific. I said to Joe I would be happy reach out to the operator to offer support. He and his team members have got to be traumatized. Terrible tragedy. Thanks again, Chris,” Lightfoot responded.
The texts, which were made public through the Freedom of Information Act, sparked outrage from organizations including Fight for $15 and the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), who protested at McDonald’s headquarters on Wednesday.
“It’s clear to us you’re the one who has failed here,” an open letter from CAARPR read. “Your text message was ignorant, racist and unacceptable coming from anyone, let alone the CEO of McDonald’s, a company that spends big money to market to communities of color and purports to stand with Black lives.”
Local employees at the burger chain abandoned their duties to join the demonstration, where protestors carried fake Happy Meal boxes that displayed critical messaging against the chain and called for Kempczinski’s resignation.
“The parents of Chris failed him by raising a son that makes over $10 million a year but cannot pay the hardest of his workers at least $15 an hour,” a Community Council member commented.
“As the Mayor has said previously, families do everything they can — moms, dads, grandparents — to love and support their children, and tragedies can still happen. Victim shaming has no place in this conversation,” a spokesperson for Lightfoot said about the text exchange.
Kempczinski acknowledged that he was “wrong” in a letter to McDonald’s employees.
“When I wrote this, I was thinking through my lens as a parent and reacted viscerally. But I have not walked in the shoes of Adam’s or Jaslyn’s family and so many others who are facing a very different reality,” he said.
“Not taking the time to think about this from their viewpoint was wrong, and lacked the empathy and compassion I feel for these families. This is a lesson that I will carry with me.”
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This is so rich. Mrs. Kroc [ founder of Mc Donalds ] gave so much funding directly to PBS years ago. PBS now has , I’d say, 75 % of its programming directed toward helping not only the just the poorer children, but to validate and include people and children of all colors. In other words PBS has become liberal almost in the extreme . But now we have accusations like this ? Get Real !!
Chicago has been for a long time the place where kids would rather be in a gang and sell drugs and stolen items, that is why are few business’s in the lower income areas as the get robbed, burned, damaged all the time, so they must close the place, there go jobs, etc. how many of the kids grow up with out a complete family, how many of the dads are in jail for drugs, murder, and other crimes? That is the real problem and has been for years, but city is run by Dems and that is to be expected and Dems need to get people in gov. housing and on payroll to keep them under there control, Chicago is like living in Cuba if you are not rich