This is a weird story. The Roeper School in Birmingham, Michigan, is the nation's oldest K through 12 school for gifted children. It recently came under fire for giving its students a biology assignment that had pictures comparing former President Obama to monkeys. In response to parents' complaints, the school sent a letter explaining that the homework assignment came from a "highly regarded university" website. It did not name the University, but Deadline Detroit identified it as coming from Duke University and supplied a link to the "Introduction to Primates" course plan.
For some reason, Duke University removed the lesson plan with the image, but it's easy to get on the Internet Archive.
Obama's picture appears with monkeys, chimpanzees, and other non-primates. Above the photos is the question, "Which of the following are primates? Check all that apply."
While it is true that humans are primates, to use a photograph of a black person in this context is insensitive, to say the least, given the history of racist people comparing black people to apes.
Correction: the school is in Birmingham, Michigan, not Birmingham, Alabama.
