For all those offended, I’ll ask again... would this be less offensive if the guy was white? Why? What is the stereotype here? Ignorance? Poor dental hygiene? It’s OK to be ignorant and toothless as long as you’re white or any other race except African American?
It's about context.
If this was a mostly-white school and there was an offensive picture of a homeless white guy or a white crack whore, that would be racist.
No - the offensiveness is not in the race but in the mockery. It's just trashy and had no business in algebra (or any other) class.
That said, the mother's an idiot. "Who's protecting us?" From WHAT - getting your feelie-weelies hurt? It's a mean old world, sister, get used to it. Not sending him to school until it's 'safe'? Again, from WHAT?
I agree with you to a point, but it is still sheer stupidity to put something like this on a school assignment regardless.
If all students were black, and there was one white student, and the picture was of a white toothless man, I would say the teacher intended to send a message to the black students and one message to the single white student. Yes, it would be racist.