Amanda Gorman shared how a security guard ‘tailed’ and questioned her outside of the activist’s own building. The inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate then flipped the script of what being a ‘threat’ means.
Amanda Gorman, 22, opened up about “the reality of black girls” while detailing an incident that happened right outside of her own apartment building on Friday night, March 5. “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,” the U.S.’s first National Youth Poet Laureate wrote in a message that she posted on her social media accounts on March 5.
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. https://t.co/MmANtQqpBs
— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) March 6, 2021
Amanda then wrote that the security guard “left” and offered “no apology.” Considering that she was sharing this story just weeks after her poem recitation at Joe Biden‘s inauguration went viral, the renown poet added, “This is the reality of black girls: One day you’re called an icon, the next day, a threat.”
Amanda then made a powerful statement in another tweet: “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.”
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. https://t.co/hY9miR0b6J
— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) March 6, 2021
Amanda’s words resonated with her immense platform (a combined following of 5.1 million followers across Instagram and Twitter), and even reached Jamie Lee Curtis, who reposted Amanda’s story on her own Instagram page. Amanda went into the 62-year-old Halloween star’s comments section and wrote, “Thank you so much for sharing my story—solidarity and allyship is how we move forward.”
Amanda, who is a Harvard University cum laude graduate, shared her experience as many BIPOC individuals have come forward with their own stories of racial profiling. However, Amanda looks forward to a true “democracy,” which she beautifully put into words while reciting her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Biden’s inauguration following the Capitol insurrection.
“When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast, We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always just-ice. And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it,” Amanda began her moving poem while looking back at the horror of the Capitol storming by Donald Trump‘s supporters. She continued, “Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished. 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.”