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Elevating America's conversation about black identity, politics & culture. Telling stories by, for, and about the black community.

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James Dixon Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter of Transgender Woman Islan Nettles

James Dixon pleaded guilty to manslaughter this morning for the death of Islan Nettles, a black transgender woman in Harlem. The announcement came early Monday, soon before jury selection was due to begin.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said in a press release that the conviction affirms his office's "commitment to protecting members of the LGBTQ community." Vance said he hoped it offered some comfort to the friends and family of Islan Nettles, who was 21 at the time of the attack.

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Christian Louboutin Expands Nude Collection for 'All Women'

In the past, nude heels, nude bras and nude Band-aids were intended to give the illusion of bare skin — but for only one skin tone. Christian Louboutin is challenging this fashion norm with a whole collection of nude products that cater to variety of skin tones.

In the French designer's latest "Nude" collection, the women's shoes have a range of seven skin tones, from "porcelain" to "deep chocolate." The footwear line's Instagram posts promise customers, "a spectrum of nudes. Seven shades of nude ensure every woman can meet her match."

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How This 11-Year-Old Turned Something Scary Into Something Sweet

Mikaila Ulmer is only 11 years old but she's all about the business of bees.

She's a social entrepreneur, public speaker, philanthropist and a savvy 6th-grader from Austin, Texas whose signature venture, "Me & The Bees" lemonade — developed from her great-grandmother's 1940 recipe — is now a thriving national business.

After securing $60,000 on the hit TV show "Shark Tank," last year, Mikaila's lemonade will now be sold in 55 Whole Food stores — the world's leader in natural and organic foods — in states including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida.

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Madame Tussauds Unveils Stephen Curry Replica

Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry finally met his match on Thursday. Madame Tussauds San Francisco unveiled the basketball star's wax counterpart, wearing his signature number 30 jersey, at the Marriott City Center in Oakland, California.

For the NBA champion and his wife, Ayesha Curry, seeing the figure had an element of nostalgia. The pair recalled visiting the museum on Hollywood Boulevard on one of their first dates in Los Angeles.

"That was one of our first experiences together, walking through and taking pictures with the wax figures at the museum, and now to have one of my own is pretty special," Curry said in a press release.

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Second Ex-Student Admits to Vandalizing Ole Miss Civil Rights Statue

A second person pleaded guilty Thursday to hanging a rope and a confederate flag around an important Civil Rights monument at the University of Mississippi in 2014.

According to a plea agreement, Austin Edenfield, a former Ole Miss student, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting someone who was attempting to intimidate and interfere with black students and employees at Ole Miss.

A second ex-student, Graeme Phillip Harris, was indicted last year and was sentenced to six months in prison.

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Unlocking The Power of The 'Sista' Vote is More Complex Than You Think

As the 2016 presidential primaries and caucuses continue across America (Arizona, Idaho and Utah all have contests on Tuesday), there's no shortage of polls and pundits trying to predict which group of voters can help their candidate win the White House.

But there's one demographic with a proven track record of strong voter turnout, and growing influence as a formidable voting bloc: African-American women.

In some circles, it's been dubbed the "sista" vote.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that 76 percent of Black women were registered to vote in 2012 -- more than any other gender, race and ethnicity in the country.

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OpEd: Standing With a Sisterhood to Fight Against HIV

March 10th is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day - a day is to raise awareness of the impact of HIV and AIDS on women and girls in the United States. Many Americans believe this is a passé issue and that in 2016 women would know everything they need to know about this infection and ways to protect themselves. Unfortunately, they are wrong. The reality is, accessing this information and then acting on this knowledge is nearly impossible when we doubt our worthiness, capability or potential.

As an HIV doctor in both the United States and Rwanda, I have come to believe strongly that fostering a woman's sense of value, capability and hope in the future is the key to inspiring her to protect and care for herself - and her family - especially when paired with knowledge and the power of sisterhood.

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Like Tinder For Jobs: Engineer Launches 'Blind' Job Match App

Stephanie Lampkin has a photo of Ursula Burns, the CEO of Xerox, up in her office.

Oprah, Maya Angelou and Melanie Hobson have a special place in her office too, but Lampkin says she draws a lot of inspiration from Burns' corporate career path.

"It takes a lot of patience and grace and delayed gratification for a black woman to go up in the ranks of a company like that," Lampkin says. "We need to see more examples of that."

Delayed gratification and grace have been key for Lampkin, 31, as she prepares to launch her app, Blendoor, into public beta testing during SXSW interactive festival Sunday. The app comes two years after being told during an interview with a well-known tech company that she didn't have enough technical skills.

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Tech Report Proposed to Solve Diversity Problem

NBCBLK is a sponsor of MVMT50 at SXSW

If Donell Creech has his way, the next big thing to come out of the South by Southwest festival (SXSW) will be a fix to tech's diversity issues.

Since late 2015, Creech, co-founder of MVMT50, has been developing The Diversity360: Annual State Of Diversity In Tech Report. As the report proposal states, its purpose is to "streamline the conversation and structure strategies for effective progress."

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Documentary About Black Man's Attempt to Befriend Ku Klux Klan

For more than two decades, Daryl Davis, an African-American musician, has been going out of his way to befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups in the hopes of persuading them to recognize their common humanity. Now he is the subject of a new documentary set to debut at SXSW this weekend, and the timing of the film could not be more fortuitous.

Davis began his crusade by asking himself the existential question: "How can you hate me when you don't even know me?" After a chance meeting with a member of the KKK following a gig, Davis began to reach out to members of hate groups, and he found that the more willing he was to hear them out, the more open they became to embracing him. More than two dozen white supremacists have since renounced their ideology of hate in part because of Davis' peace offering. And as part of that process, they have symbolically handed over their Klan robes and paraphernalia to him.

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Kendrick Lamar Shocks Fans with Surprise Album, 'Untitled Unmastered'

Beyonce is not the only artist who can successfully release a surprise album and have everyone's attention. Fresh off his five Grammy wins last month, rap's boldest warrior, Kendrick Lamar, sent the internet ablaze last night as he released a surprise album, Untitled Unmastered, exclusively on Spotify and iTunes.

The body of work is expected to be released on other music streaming services today and contains eight songs all named "untitled" (followed by the date the song was made.)

While the Compton native kept details under wraps about this newest project, many hints were tossed in the ever-changing stratosphere of Twitter and Instagram.

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Trooper in Sandra Bland Traffic Stop Formally Fired

AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas trooper indicted over his arrest of a black woman who was later found dead in jail has been formally fired, three months after his bosses first announced they would do so, state officials said Wednesday.

Former Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Encinia can still appeal the decision to fire him, which came after a grand jury indicted him on a perjury charge in December. He's accused of lying about his July 2015 arrest of Sandra Bland and their confrontational traffic stop that was caught on dashcam video.

Encinia met last month with Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw, but their conversation gave the agency leader no reason "to alter my preliminary decision," according to a termination letter signed by Encinia on Wednesday.

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Some People Don't Think Zoe Saldana Should Be Playing Nina Simone

The trailer for the long-rumored Nina Simone biopic "Nina" was released Wednesday and along with it came some of the same criticism that first surfaced when the public found out that actress Zoe Saldana would be playing the renowned jazz musician and vocalist.

Saldana was first cast in the film, which focuses on Simone's relationship with assistant Clifton Henderson (David Oyelowo), in 2012. Photos were leaked of her on set soon after and immediately people began to voice their disapproval of the choice - the main reason being that Saldana looks nothing like Simone.

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NBCBLK28, Day 29: Jessica Williams

Jessica Williams, 26, Comedian and Correspondent on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, @msjwilly

This unflinching declaration has been pinned to the top of Jessica Williams' Twitter profile for over a year now.

As the youngest member of the most trusted team in fake news, Jessica has used her platform as a correspondent on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" to break down issues ranging from sexism, to racism, to classism through an unapologetically black feminist lens.

Oh, and she's also hilarious at it.

Most recently Jessica slayed with her rebuttal to critics who deemed Beyonce's Superbowl performance of "Formation" to be too "unwholesome" for middle America.

To use her words, "not everyone was ready for that jelly."

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The Professors vs. The President: Has Obama Done Enough for African-Americans?

Michael Eric Dyson and Eddie Glaude Jr., two well-respected black intellectuals and professors, make the same argument in books they have released over the last month: President Obama hasn't done enough on policy to help fellow African-Americans and regularly uses rhetoric that is overly critical of blacks.

"Obama energetically peppers his words to blacks with talk of responsibility in one public scolding after another," Dyson writes in The Black Presidency. "When Obama upbraids black folk while barely mentioning the flaws of white Americans, he leaves the impression that race is the concern solely of black people, and that blackness is full of pathology."

"Obama's reprimands of black folk also undercuts their moral standing," he adds.

Glaude, in Democracy in Black, argues that under Obama, "black communities have been devastated."

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Oscars Review: The Rise and Fall of Host Chris Rock

All pre-Oscar buzz centered on how Oscar host Chris Rock would handle the "elephant" in the room, a predominantly white nominee base with zero nominations for actors of color, at the 88th Academy Awards.

The result: Rock delivered a monologue that skewered the traditional infrastructure of a stagnant 50s era Hollywood. In his opening line, Rock referred to the time-honored Hollywood ceremony as the "White People's Choice Awards." As the nominees became transfixed on Rock, their reactions made it clear that they were unsure of the appropriate response to jokes that were targeting the whitewashed nature of the industry.

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NBCBLK28, Day 28: Simone Biles

Simone Biles, 18, Team USA Gymnast

When the Rio 2016 Olympic Games kick off in August, you can expect Simone Biles to become a household name.

She already made history at last fall's World Gymnastics Championships when she became the first woman ever to win three all-around titles in a row. She's a premiere member of Team USA gymnastics, having bested her competitors on the balance beam and in floor exercises at the championships and in so doing, bringing the U.S. team to a historic win.

Now, she's heavily favored to replicate that success in Rio De Janeiro, and compete in the very games she watched four years ago as a young teen.

Read the full story at NBCBLK.