I have to admit, I didn't know shit about the man when I got into his stories but finding out how incredibly racist he was sure as shit explains the ending to a few stories where the horror element is finding out you're the offspring of some people you think look a bit ugly.
iirc Lovecraft was considered wildly racist even by the standards of the time. Overly sarcastic productions has a nice video about how a lot of his stories were manifestations of his irrational fear of just about everything really.
Well to be fair in his later works, the grotesque aliens are mostly merely indifferent towards humans and not inherently evil. But yeah, most of his stuff is super rascist nevertheless.
To a degree, ancient Greeks had this belief as well- to the point that an admitted murdress was sent free because she was hot. (I half remember this story from a decade ago. No sources)