McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski is facing heavy criticisms for a “racist” and “ignorant” text message he sent to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot about shootings throughout the beleaguered city.
Kempczinski allegedly sent a message to Lightfoot that appeared to blame parents who “failed those kids” for their deaths.
The CEO sent the message to Mayor Lightfoot after a meeting in April as two highly publicized shootings deaths of kids under 14 were in the news.
“p.s. tragic shootings in last week, both at our restaurant yesterday and with Adam Toledo. With both, the parents failed those kids, which I know is something you can’t say. Even harder to fix,” he wrote in the messages recently made public.
Kempczinski was referring to the shooting death of Jaslyn Adams, a 7-year-old girl shot and killed at a McDonald’s drive-thru on the West Side of Chicago and 13-year-old Adam Toledo who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer.
A spokesperson for Mayor Lightfoot’s office criticized Kempczinski’s comments in a statement yesterday.
“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,” a statement from a spokesperson for the mayor said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “Victim shaming has no place in this conversation.”
A protest is scheduled to be held Wednesday at McDonald’s headquarters in the West Loop.
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