Amanda Gorman says a security guard followed her home on Friday night. The 22-year-old poet, who became the youngest inaugural poet in American history when she acted in President Joe Biden’s inauguration earlier this year, says the guard said she looked “suspicious.”
“A security guard queued me on my way home tonight,” Gorman wrote on Twitter. “He asked me if I lived there because ‘you look suspicious.’ I showed my keys and went into my building. He left, without apology. That’s the reality of black girls: one day they call you an icon, the next day, a threat “.
In a follow-up tweet, he wrote: “In a sense, I was right. I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, inequality, ignorance. Anyone who tells the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger. for the powers “.
Gorman recited his poem “The hill we climb” on the steps of the United States Capitol during the inauguration ceremony of Mr. They drink on January 20th.CBS This Morning’s“Anthony Mason who prepared for the big moment the way he would prepare for any other performance.
“One of the preparations I always make is to call myself a mantra, which is‘ I’m the daughter of black writers. We are descendants of freedom fighters who broke chains and changed the world. jo “.”
The original composition was based on his own experience, as “a skinny, black girl descended from slaves” who dreams of “becoming president,” as well as the recent insurrection at the Capitol, Gorman told Mason.