Kempczinski sent the messages, which angered community groups after their recent post, after meeting Lightfoot at McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago in April. In the texts, he said that the parents of children shot in two separate shootings “failed these children”.

One of them happened the day before Kempczinski and Lightfoot met: a shootout in the drive-thru lane of a West Side McDonald’s that killed seven-year-old Jaslyn Adams. Three weeks earlier, 13-year-old Adam Toledo was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer during a foot chase in Little Village.

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

In response, Lightfoot said, “Thanks, Chris. Nice to see you in person. Such a big workspace, and your people were great. I told Joe that I would be happy to contact the operator to offer assistance. He and his team members must be traumatized. Terrible tragedy. Thanks again, Chris.

In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Lightfoot criticized the CEO’s comments.

“As the mayor said previously, families are doing all they can – moms, dads, grandparents – to love and support their children, and tragedies can still happen,” the statement said. “The shame of the victim has no place in this conversation.”

The texts were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Michael Kessler, a Vancouver man requesting records as part of an investigation into a Portland, Ore., Police case. in collaboration with Lucy Parsons Labs, a non-profit transparency organization. An image of the portion of the FOIA recordings including Kempczinski’s texts was shared on Twitter.

In a note sent to McDonald’s employees in the United States on Tuesday morning, Kempczinski said he was reflecting on his conversation with the mayor about the recent tragedies when he wrote the post.

“When I wrote this I was thinking through my lens as a parent and reacting viscerally. But I didn’t step into the shoes of Adam’s or Jaslyn’s family and so many others. who face a very different reality, “he said.” Not taking the time to think about this from their perspective was a mistake and lacked the empathy and compassion I feel for these people. families.This is a lesson that I will take with me.

A dozen organizations, including the Chicago Fight for $ 15 and a union, the Little Village Community Council and Centro Sin Fronteras, have scheduled a protest at the company’s headquarters on Wednesday.

Baltazar Enriquez, chairman of the Little Village Community Council, said it was “disrespectful” of Kempczinksi to make these comments “when he doesn’t know our community, our people.”

“He doesn’t know what it’s like to be poor. People like him see our community as garbage and at the same time want to sell us their products, ”Enriquez said. “We donate a lot of money to his company. He should put that money back into our community.

The organizations also planned to send an open letter to Kempczinski on Wednesday morning to express their outrage at his texts. A copy of the letter shared with the Tribune called his comments “ignorant, racist and unacceptable from anyone, let alone the CEO of McDonald’s, a company that spends a lot to market communities of color and claims to support the black life “.

The letter said employees described being discriminated against in company stores for years and receiving “starvation wages.” He also drew attention to a lawsuit that 77 former black franchisees have brought against the company, alleging that McDonald’s discriminated against them by directing them to less profitable restaurants and failed to give them rent relief and other financial support he gave to white franchisees.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois last year, and McDonald’s has denied the allegations.

In the letter, the organizations asked Kempczinski to meet with employees and community leaders and share his plan “to tackle systemic racism at McDonald’s and beyond.”

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

In the email to McDonald’s employees, Kempczinski said, “It is up to all of us to do better for the children in our communities. I am committed to working with city leaders and elected officials to understand what this means for McDonald’s, and I will ask all of you to join me in this pursuit.

After hearing what Kempczinski said in the letter to employees, Enriquez said it was “a little too late to apologize with crocodile tears”.

His organization is still planning to participate in the event tomorrow, “to show that we are the heart of the business, and so that they understand that because of us, they exist”.

McDonald’s declined to say if it had contacted the families of Adam Toledo and Jaslyn Adams.