AustLit

'On the fifth day of every month, when my father collected his salary, the same thing happened at my house. My father, a proud Black sergeant for the Brazilian Air Force with short black hair and thick myopia glasses, arrived at home just after sundown. He was dressed in his usual ragged jeans and looked very sweaty with droplets on his forehead. I remember the bags under his eyes. I could never be sure if he was tired from his long shifts at the air base or just getting old. My father placed his tattered brown leather bag on the living room table. Frowning and looking at me from above his glasses, he said, ‘Are you coming or what?’ I nodded profusely, lips flat, attempting to hide my joy. It was supermarket day!'

Source : Introduction

'Salvador is the blackest city in Brazil. It's where I was born, in 1976. Salvador is about seventy per cent black and thirty per cent white. I would compare it to a southern state in the United States — Mississippi, perhaps — because the thirty per cent run everything. They own all the businesses and have all the power. My father was in the air force. His position shielded me from a lot of racism, but 'shielded from' doesn't mean eliminated: I suffered from it throughout my childhood.' (Introduction)