 In 2021, Black operators led a protest at the restaurant's headquarters in Chicago. They alleged McDonald's put Black operators in economically distressed communities with high levels of crime, leading to higher overhead costs and lower profits. Lebo Hannon from SAC20 says he never came around to McDonald's being good for Kansas City, per se, but he had great respect for the Black franchise owners in town. There were some of these guys that were really sharp at entrepreneurship.