'McGarbage': McDonald's CEO blasted for 'racist' text blaming parents for Chicago shootings

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski is under fire for comments recently made public in which he told Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot that parents of children killed in recent shootings "failed those kids." 

Kempczinski issued a company apology on Tuesday, noting his comments in April lacked "compassion and empathy," but not before significant backlash, including a small protest Wednesday outside one of McDonald's city headquarters.

According to the Chicago Tribune, some of the signage called the company "Evil" and "McGarbage." The protest was organized by a dozen organizations that wrote a letter to McDonald's calling the CEO's comments "ignorant, racist and unacceptable coming from anyone."

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Kempczinski, who was elevated to president of McDonald's Corp. in 2016, initially made the comments in a text exchange with Lightfoot after the mayor's visit to the McDonald's campus on April 19. The texts were released through a Freedom of Information Act request for a separate incident looking into a police matter in Portland, Oregon. An image of the text exchange from the FOIA records was then shared over Twitter.

Kempczinski, 53, was referring to two shootings – one of 7-year-old Jasyln Adams (killed in a McDonald's drive-thru April 18) and 13-year-old Adam Toledo (killed by a police officer March 29). 

“With both, the parents failed those kids which I know is something you can’t say. Even harder to fix,” Kempczinski wrote in the message to Lightfoot.

The mayor diplomatically responded at the time. Lightfoot's office issued a public statement, however, on Tuesday after the messages were made public: "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." 

Kempczinski's expressed disappointment in himself, acknowledging privilege as a blinder, in a statement to McDonald's corporate employees on Tuesday. 

"When I wrote this, I was thinking through my lens as a parent and reacted viscerally," he wrote. "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. 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."

The protest organizers included organizations such as the Chicago Fight for $15 and a Union and Little Village Community Council. The letter called on Kempczinski to meet with community members within seven days, questioning the authenticity of "a company that spends big to market to communities of color and purports to stand with Black lives."

"As the leader of one of the world’s largest private employers and most iconic brands, you have a responsibility to do so much better," the letter read.

McDonald's was sued last year by 52 Black franchisees in a $1 billion racial discrimination complaint that alleged "systematic and covert racial discrimination" and denial of "equal opportunity to economic success" when compared with white colleagues.