10 Classic Children's Books That Are Actually Racist

5. Doctor Dolittle

It's everyone's favourite Eddie Murphy family comedy! No, wait, that's not right - it's a children's book from the 1950s about a doctor who discovers he can talk to animals that was later adapted with one of its more socially questionable subplots wisely excised. In the novel, the good doctor meets an African prince who wants to marry a white princess - which is about what you'd expect from a story involving talking animals, right? Unfortunately, this being the middle of the twentieth century and interracial unions not being quite as acceptable as they are now, the practicalities of this are shaky to say the least. So what does Dolittle do? What any good physician would - he bleaches the prince's skin white so that he can marry the girl without any of that nasty social stigma, producing "a smell like burning paper". So not only are children being taught that you should drastically change yourself in order to become acceptable to others, but that doing so will also make everyone sniff in confusion wherever you go.