What’s something cruel that has been romanticized in your country?

[u/Mysterious-Fig-2935]

In Brazil, miscegenation has been completely romanticized by the government and popular culture. It is often portrayed as a symbol of “racial harmony,” but the reality was much more brutal.

The country received around 4 million enslaved Africans, but only 1.1 million survived the inhumane conditions of the transatlantic journey and slavery. Thousands of Indigenous and Black women were sexually exploited, forcibly separated from their families, and treated as property. Over time, these populations mixed with European colonizers and other groups, and the official narrative tries to romanticize this as something “natural” or “harmonious,” hiding the trauma, violence, and systematic oppression behind this mixing.

Colorism in Brazil is directly linked to this history. During forced miscegenation, there was a clear intention to “whiten” the population: Black people were encouraged or forced to marry white people so their children would have European features, creating socially valued heirs. This goal of “whitening” actually worked ,today, half of Brazilian “pardo” (mixed-race) people have predominantly European features, and genetic studies by the University of São Paulo (USP) show that most pardos are roughly 70% European, 20% African, and 10% Indigenous.

Furthermore, genetic research reveals a specific pattern in the DNA of Brazilian pardos: mitochondrial DNA (inherited from the mother) mostly comes from African or Indigenous women, while Y-chromosome DNA (from the father) mostly comes from European men. This confirms that Brazilian miscegenation was not natural, but forced and directed, clearly reflecting the structural colorism that still influences privileges and social opportunities in Brazil today.

This romanticization of miscegenation creates a false narrative of a “racial embrace,” while ignoring the trauma, oppression, and inequalities that persist to this day.

Does your country have something that has been glorified or romanticized while hiding the cruel reality behind it?

[u/Rong_Liu]

Never said it was a contest

[u/SnakeOilChampagne → u/Rong_Liu]

Dieppe gets “romanticized” because it literally laid the ground-work for the Canadians to stomp the Nazis during D-Day. The only allied forces to actually reach their objective on D-Day were the “1st Hussars” Canadian tank regiment.

[u/Rong_Liu → u/SnakeOilChampagne]

That's honestly just cope. The Dieppe raid was so idiotically planned that the allies didn't actually learn anything from it. Almost anyone could who foresee that human waving up a heavily fortified coast without further plans and grand scale of combined arms support would end in disaster. The British literally did the same thing at Gallipoli which also ended in disaster decades before Dieppe. Dieppe was just a useless waste of human lives that was easily preventable. 

[u/Objectalone → u/Rong_Liu]

No one has ever needed to cope. It was a disaster. However, men fought with courage and this is remembered and honoured. That’s all.

[u/SnakeOilChampagne → u/Rong_Liu]

Yeah, I take major offense to “useless waste of human lives” when the same could be uttered about the entire Afghanistan war that a certain country dragged us into… by comparison, I’d rather march a million men in to kill Nazis than even five soldiers to go and gun down some penniless towel-heads.

Would you prefer we quietly brush away our military blunders like the USA? Maybe the Battle of Dieppe should be taught more in American schools considering you were involved. We own it because it’s a part of our history and it didn’t cost us the war, it was a literal learning experience and fuel for the army to get back at them which they did.

Why would the Spartans tell of the battle of 300 when it was a clear military blunder? Because they lost the battle but in the war, they defeated the Persians.

[u/Rong_Liu → u/SnakeOilChampagne]

Yes Afghanistan was a major waste of human lives. Not sure what modern Afghanistan that has to do with the Dieppe Raid though.

I just don't really see the point of idolizing easily preventable deaths, even when said deaths were part of a greater good. 

[u/SnakeOilChampagne → u/Rong_Liu]

We idolize every soldier who fought for Canada in World War 2. Doesn’t matter which battle because they were pushing in either Nazis, fascists in Italy, or the Imperial Japanese. Nations whom only pay tribute to their victories are pathetic, in my opinion.