File 7 - The ugliest race.

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.