File 7 - The ugliest race.

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The ugliest race.

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SCA545-GA546-7

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([196-]-[197-])

Administrative history

The American Eugenics Party (AEP) was founded in Los Angeles, California in the 1960s and held meetings in Long Beach and Santa Barbara. It was a racist right-wing organization that used the pseudo-scientific belief of Eugenics to justify its own beliefs and political platform. Members of the party included Samuel Andrisani, who was the party's primary spokesperson and Education Manager, as well as John S. Vanders who was the party's Public Relations Manager. Robert Henderon was the party's chairman of the race relations committee. Samuel Andrisani was born in Lackawana, N.Y. ca. 1930 and served in the Army Medical Corps. In 1965 he was the owner of Trailhider Manufacturing Co., a business that made animal accessories. Although he held a master's degree in education, he stated that he wasn't teaching as he felt the education system needed reform.

Tenets of the party's platform included the importance of racial purity, anti-immigration legislation, the intention to unite all "Caucasian stocks" to fight against the "non-Caucasian genetic threat", limiting government positions to those who pass an AEP test, "incentive economics", limited roles for women, neutrality on the concept of God, access to education based on "hereditary mental ability", limiting media on "dysgenic acts", removing "white defectives" (White people who are not eugenicists) from political positions, eliminating violence-type sports such as boxing, enacting anti-vice laws, enacting environmental legislation, and ensuring only "eugenic marriages" (marriages in which the couple are matched in terms of race, intellect, etc.).

Samuel Andrisani ran under the American Eugenics Party banner in the 1965 L.A. board of Education, Office number 2, election. His campaign speech indicated that crime, poverty, drop-outs and other social problems are hereditary and advocated that all Black people be "sent back to Africa". His vision for the school district was that the "unequal not be regarded as equal, honest and disclosed grades, that uncensored test information as to race and socio-economic status is a public right, graded diplomas, that the problem of overcrowded classrooms be solved by ''offspring control," and that more money should be spent on gifted children and less on the non-gifted." In the speech, Samuel also distanced the AEP from the Nazis by stating that the AEP was accepting of Jewish People. He received 2 votes in the election. Also in 1965, Albert Andrisani (brother of Samuel) appeared on KTTV's Louis Lomax show to discuss eugenics.

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Publication from the American Eugenics Party on the eugenics based "scientific information" on what race is the ugliest. The publication's first point is that there has been a degeneration of standards in society when it comes to beauty. The three reasons given are that beauty has been defined as a function and all ugliness is labelled as beautiful, that distortion and unreality has been considered beautiful, and that clichés such as "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" are used. The AEP posits that there are universal eugenic standards and that those who possess "a normal sensory mechanism" can determine beauty from ugliness. Normal sensory mechanisms have definite limitations and the preference is for balance, which equates to beauty.

The basic eugenic program is designed to "promote and preserve universal beauty standards" and those standards show that Caucasians are the superior race in terms of beauty, whereas "Negros" are the inferior race in terms of beauty. The AEP justification for this is that there are over 200 differences in appearance between Caucasians and "Negros" and that in all cases the Caucasian appearance is superior. One of the key factors in determining which features are better seems to be an idea of middle ground, or balance. For instance, a grading scale shows Caucasians in the middle in terms of skin colour with "Negros" on one end and "Albinos" on the other - both of which are considered deficient as they are on the extremes of the spectrum.

The publication devotes sections to skin colour, facial features, head shape, hair type, skin structure, and body type. In each section, examples are given as to why Caucasian features are superior, such as: Black people's skin colour makes teeth and eyes appear too white, Black is a depressing colour and spiritually is a sign of evil, larger lips and noses mean that the facial features are not in balance, the cephalic index is off, that "Negro hair" is wool like and therefore closer to animals, that "Negro skin" is too smooth and therefore gives the appearance of being slimy, and that "Negro" buttocks are larger so that they can serve as storage tanks for water.

The conclusion is that the "Negro race" appearance violates the "Universal Beauty Law" (not too predominant or too subdued for the value assigned to the parts of a whole). The publication goes on to discuss other negatives of the "Negro race" such as lack of having built civilizations, deficiency in reasoning, prominence of sickle cell, an unpleasant voice, body weaknesses, and body odour.

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Purchased in 2025 from David Anthem, Bookseller.

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  • English

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General note

The concept of races is a tenet of scientific racism, or biological racism, a pseudo-scientific belief that humans can be divided into so-called races, and that there is scientific evidence that supports racial superiority.

General note

All the materials in this collection espouse racist, sexist and ableist beliefs under the justification of the pseudo-science "eugenics" and scientific racism. There are racist and offensive references made to Black people, Arabic people, Asian people, women, people with mental illness, and anyone who does not believe in racial segregation. There are derogatory statements and depictions throughout the publications that may be deeply upsetting or triggering.

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Created by JB Nov. 2025

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  • English

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