What is the 13th Amendment and how was it used against African Americans?

On January 31, 1865, the 13th Amendment was passed by former president Abraham Lincoln and ratified on December 6, 1865. This is the amendment that abolished slavery. While the 13th Amendment did abolish slavery, the next section in this amendment is hypocritical to the first. There is a passage in the 13th Amendment that states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” This passage means that if you are a criminal, by law, you can serve labor involuntarily as punishment. This served as a loophole against African Americans to reinforce a modernized form of slavery. Even though slavery was abolished, African Americans have been disproportionately incarcerated and filled inside of prisons regardless of innocence and in unfair methods, and taken up the involuntary roles of servitude forced upon them. After slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment, the racism that African Americans have faced stilled strongly remained and the law enforcement system did not treat African Americans fairly. African Americans would be given much harsher sentences for crimes and were also targeted for arrest more than anyone else. In 1865, exactly when slavery was abolished, laws like Jim Crow were placed, making it so African Americans couldn’t do everything that everyone else was able to do, giving police even more ability to arrest African Americans.