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Poet Amanda Gorman Says Security Guard Followed Her Home, Called Her 'Suspicious'

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Poet Amanda Gorman said Friday that a security guard followed her home and said she looked suspicious.

"A security guard tailed me on my walk home tonight," she wrote on Twitter. "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."

In a follow-up tweet she wrote: "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."

The 22-year-old came to prominence earlier this year as the nation's youngest inaugural poet. During President Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony, she recited a poem titled, "The Hill We Climb."

A request for comment was not immediately returned.

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