Amanda Gorman says security guard labelled her ‘suspicious’

Daily US Times: Amanda Gorman, who found global fame after performing at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, has shared her experience of alleged racial profiling by a security guard.

The young poet said on Twitter that she was accosted on a walk home and told “you look suspicious”.

“This is the reality of black girls: One day you’re called an icon, the next day, a threat,” the 22-year-old wrote.

Gorman grew widespread acclaim for her performance of The Hill We Climb in Biden’s inauguration.

Her inauguration poem was seen as a rousing and timely call for national unity – delivered at the United States Capitol just weeks after it was the scene of deadly riots.

Gorman described her experience in twitter saying being “tailed” by the security guard who she said offered no apology after she was able to prove she lived in her own apartment building.

In revealing her experience, the young poet re-shared a post she made in February which said: “We live in a contradictory society that can celebrate a black girl poet & also pepper spray a 9 yr old” – in reference to a recent incident in Rochester, New York.

“Yes see me, but also see all other black girls who’ve been made invisible. I can not, will not, rise alone,” she added.

Amanda Gorman added in a second tweet about the incident: “In a sense, he was right. I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance.”

Her social media posts have been widely shared – highlighted as an example of the every day prejudice faced by black people in the US.

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