According to the lawsuit, McDonalds steered Black franchisees to stores in inner-city neighborhoods with lower sales volumes and higher security and insurance costs. Once Black franchisees owned a store, they would be asked to rebuild or remodel within a shorter period of time than white franchisees without the rent relief and other financial support given to white franchisees, the lawsuit says. Theyre the same everywhere.Ferraro also noted that the number of Black McDonalds franchisees has fallen by half over the last two decades. In 1996, McDonalds leadership acknowledged that Black franchisees werent achieving parity with their white counterparts and resolved to make changes. They claimed McDonalds shifted advertising away from Black customers, graded Black-owned stores more harshly than white ones and implemented business plans that had a discriminatory impact on Black franchisees.