Poet Amanda Gorman Says She Was Racially Profiled by Security Guard

The 22-year-old activist and poet detailed the incident on Twitter, claiming the security guard stopped her outside her home because she looked "suspicious."

March 6, 2021

Amanda Gorman took to Twitter on Friday night to describe an incident that many people of minority communities found all too familiar.

The 22-year-old activist and poet said she was walking to her home in Los Angeles when she realized she was being “tailed” by a security guard. Gorman, who became the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history this year, said the man had stopped her before she entered her building and demanded to know if she actually lived there. The guard allegedly told Gorman she looked “suspicious” before she showed him her keys and buzzed herself in.

“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. “In a sense, he was right. I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance. Anyone who speaks the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger to the powers that be.”

Gorman received widespread praise for her performance at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The former National Youth Poet Laureate recited “The Hill We Climb,” an original piece she completed following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.