Forget Me . . . Not

Abstract

In 2008, Marion Jones was convicted and sentenced to 6 months in a federal prison for lying to federal prosecutors about steroid use and knowledge of a check-cashing scheme. This article explores the Jones scandal and the aftermath in the context of the contemporary cultural politics of Black female bodies and Black womanhood. I examine these events in the era of mass incarceration and a post-9/11 culture. I argue that the fervor and contempt expressed toward Jones are emblematic of a climate where the ideology of color blindness and claims to post-raciality promote and sustain the normalization of humiliation and punishment of Black females.