Poet Amanda Gorman says she was tailed by guard on her walk home who thought of her as 'threat'

LOS ANGELES -- Amanda 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.

SEE ALSO: Amanda Gorman, 22, recites 'The Hill We Climb' at inauguration ceremony


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.



While she is thankful for the outpouring of support she has received, she said, "It won't change the truth of what happened, and continues to happen to Black Americans, but it reassures me of what I already know: There is always far more good in this world than bad."