'Veep' star Sam Richardson talks about growing up in America as a black man

"If we were all to show the amount of frustration and fear that we feel, we wouldn't be able to exist in society."
By Sam Haysom  on 
'Veep' star Sam Richardson talks about growing up in America as a black man
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Like Late Night's Amber Ruffin, actor Sam Richardson has some stories to tell late night hosts about what it was like growing up as a black person in America.

In the video above, he tells Conan O'Brien about the time he was wrongly accused of stealing as a 12-year-old boy, and about the time a police officer yelled at him for trying to give them information.

In response, O'Brien asks how Richardson lives with the kind of anger he must feel from situations like that.

"We all have to," Richardson replies. "If we were all to show the amount of frustration and fear that we feel, we wouldn't be able to exist in society."

Richardson then uses a Marvel quote — where Hulk tells Captain America, "I'm always angry," in The Avengers — to explain what he means.

"I'm always angry," says Richardson. "I can't let that anger dictate my life, and stop me from experiencing life. That's true for all of us. There's no way we can see what happens in the world, and watch these cases of violence against us, and not be angry.

"And these things boil over. What we're watching right now is things boiling over."

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Sam Haysom

Sam Haysom is the Deputy UK Editor for Mashable. He covers entertainment and online culture, and writes horror fiction in his spare time.


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