US inauguration poet Amanda Gorman tailed by security guard on her walk home

Amanda Gorman was tailed by a security guard

Credit: Patrick Semansky/AFP

Amanda Gorman, the young African-American poet who stole the show at Joe Biden’s inauguration, was tailed by a security guard while walking home, who believed she looked "suspicious".

Ms Gorman, 22, the country’s first youth poet laureate, described the encounter which took place in Los Angeles last Friday on Instagram.

"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."

Later on Twitter, she added: "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. A threat and proud."

I am so thankful for the outpouring of support since the incident last night. 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. Love, Amanda https://t.co/RrsZm9PAsv

— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) March 6, 2021

The poet said she was another victim of racial profiling. The incident, she added, was evidence of “a contradictory society that can celebrate a black girl poet & also pepper spray a 9 yr old,”  recalling how the police arrested an African-American child in Rochester, New York last month.

Ms Gorman was thrust into the national spotlight by her powerful performance at the presidential inauguration in January when she recited her poem "The Hill We Climb", two weeks after a mob stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to overturn Mr Biden’s victory.

In the poem she rejoiced at being "a skinny black girl / descended from slaves and raised by a single mother / [who] can dream of becoming president / only to find herself reciting for one".

A Harvard sociology graduate,  Ms Gorman became the United States first national poet laureate in 2017.

She was also only the sixth poet to perform at a presidential inauguration. Others included Robert Frost and Maya Angelou.

It is understood that she was invited to perform at the request of Jill Biden, the First Lady and an English teacher who is a fan of her work.