"One day you’re called an icon, the next day, a threat," she said.
March 6, 2021, 5:51 AM
• 4 min read
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleAmanda Gorman, the young poet who made history at President Joe Biden's inauguration in January, opened up about being racially profiled by a male guard while she was on her walk home.
On Twitter Friday night, the 22-year-old said she was walking to her apartment when a guard followed her, assuming she was a threat.
"A security guard tailed me on my walk home tonight. He demanded if I lived there because 'you look suspicious.' I showed my keys & buzzed myself into my building. He left, no apology. This is the reality of black girls: One day you’re called an icon, the next day, a threat," she wrote.
The post quickly went viral, as Gorman has gained international fame since Jan. 20, when she become the youngest poet to ever recite a poem at a presidential inauguration.
In this file photo dated Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, American poet Amanda Gorman recites a poem during the inauguration of President Joe Biden at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
In her poem "The Hill We Climb," Gorman speaks openly about racial injustice in the country.
"We the successors of a country and a time / Where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother / can dream of becoming president / only to find herself reciting for one," the poem reads.
About an hour after her first Twitter post Friday, Gorman reflected on her experience with the guard.
"In a sense, he was right. I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance," she wrote in a separate post.
"Anyone who speaks the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger to the powers that be," she added.
