What Is 13th Amendment? Kanye West Calls For Changes

Rapper Kanye West took to Twitter on Sunday to show his support for President Donald Trump as he posted a picture of himself on an airplane wearing a Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat while stating the need to “abolish the 13th amendment,” which, under the United States Constitution, makes slavery a punishable offense.

In the tweet, he talked about how the hat and possibly the slogan represented the good side and “America becoming whole again.” He also supported Trump’s “America First” agenda, about which the president spoke during his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday, following which he was laughed at by other world leaders. West talked about how America will focus on creating jobs and building factories, and stressed the need for providing employment to those who were “free from prisons,” after abolishing the 13th amendment.

In a series of tweets that followed, West clarified he meant the amendment needed to be amended again, and added that currently the 13th amendment was “slavery in disguise … meaning it never ended … We are the solution that heals.”

In the aftermath of the Civil War in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, abolishing slavery throughout the country.

“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,” the amendment stated.

The Civil War was fought between the U.S. and the Confederate States of America (11 southern states that did not want to abolish the institution of slavery among other things that prompted the war).

West was probably referring to the “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,” part of the addendum when he said he wanted to abolish the amendment. Else, his statement would mean he supported slavery. This could be why he later corrected himself and said he wanted the amendment to be amended, not abolished.

The tweet came right after West’s performance for the Season 44 premiere of Saturday Night Live (SNL) where he was the musical guest after Ariana Grande canceled. He performed with his red MAGA hat on.

"They bullied me backstage. They said 'Don't go out there with that hat on.' They bullied me," West said according to a report on Mashable. Though the official show ended with West last music performance, extra unaired footage which circulated on social media showed the star continuing on after the show ended, talking about how he supported Trump, and how most news was “liberal” and “so, so, so one-sided.”

West’s tweet, which came after a little while after his appearance on SNL, showed him wearing the same MAGA hat. It garnered a lot of criticism, with some calling him out for probably not phrasing the words right. Others questioned whether he was purposefully being indirect for the drama.

One of the sharpest criticism was by “Captain America” actor Chris Evans.

However, there were some who came to West’s defense. One user said, “He's obviously referring to the ‘as a punishment for crime’ part. there is a reason why the US has the most prisoners total and per capita. it's because prison labor is akin to modern day slavery. he has talked about this in his music before (sic).”

This is not the first time the rapper has been criticized for his views on slavery.

“When you hear about slavery for 400 years — for 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” he said in an interview with TMZ. “You were there for 400 years and it's all of y'all. It's like we're mentally imprisoned.”

“So many times I talk to a white person about this and [they] say, "How could you like Trump? He's racist,'” West had said in the unaired recording of the SNL, according to Daily Mail. “Well, if I was concerned about racism I would've moved out of America a long time ago.”