A man made racist threats in Harvard’s Instagram comments. Now, he’s going to prison.
The threats targeted the university's Black Commencement.
An Arizona man was sentenced to more than a year in prison Wednesday for racist threats he posted in 2017 targeting Harvard University’s Black Commencement.
Nicholas Zuckerman, 25, was sentenced by a U.S. district court to 15 months in prison and three years of supervised release, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office. He pleaded guilty in February to making interstate threats.
His threats, which were comments on Instagram posts from Harvard, included “#bombharvard” and racial slurs. “I encourage violence and death at it,” he wrote of the black commencement ceremony, detailing the kinds of weapons he would use.
He called the event, which celebrates the accomplishments of Harvard’s black graduates, a “blacks only ceremony” and said he would end Harvard’s “pro-black agenda.”
One of the posts he commented on, according to court documents, depicted three young black women. The other Harvard post he commented on included a photo of the American flag.
He also commented “#bombharvard” on other accounts approximately 11 times in four minutes.
Zuckerman’s account was named “russian_goalkeeper94,” according to court documents.
The posts were reported to Harvard University Police and then referred to federal authorities.
“Let today’s sentence serve as a lesson to all that no hate monger hiding behind a social-media pseudonym can stop others from celebrating the diversity of some of our area’s best and brightest minds,” Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston division, said in a statement.
Harvard did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Zuckerman’s sentencing.