Remember when there was a Christian history book displayed in the Iliff School of Theology bound by the skin of a Native American man? Remember when DU’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that female law school professors were paid almost $20 thousand less than their male co-workers? Remember when 12,000 DU students and faculty members camped outside on campus to protest the Vietnam War? 

Remember that? Of course you don’t. However, there’s a new Instagram account on the block, and it’s not another travel blogging influencer. 

RememberX—known on Instagram as @rxdu_—is a project that seeks to call attention to the struggles, demands and experiences of marginalized communities on DU’s campus. Started as an Instagram page on March 29, the account has now gained over 800 followers and posts a variety of content surrounding DU’s history and student resilience, quotes and demands.

“In creating RememberX, we want to show how students at DU have been talking about ways they feel unsafe on campus or feel that campus doesn’t really reflect their desires or their identities,” said Caris Fox, one of the creators of RememberX. “We wanted to empower communities but then also show there’s an injustice that has been present since the founding of the university. It continues today.” 

For a project that was initially created to prepare the DU community for the 2020 election, RememberX has grown to serve as a beacon of representation for marginalized communities on campus. Though the account looks similar to and is reminiscent of @wecandubetter—a DU-based Instagram account highlighting the survivors of gender-based violence that made waves throughout the DU community and the nation—RememberX had originally no intention to make their platform virtual.

“Before the whole Instagram account, we had plans to make a grand display,” said Abdul Ayad, a RememberX team member. “We were basically going to project a whole video of student quotes, pretty much what’s on the Instagram page, on the Anderson Academic Commons. But the coronavirus happened, so we figured that the next best medium to display our message would be through Instagram, through just gradually posting daily things.”

Ayad is one of the many students of color on campus along with fellow team member Fox. As active members in affinity groups on campus and members of marginalized communities themselves, Ayad and Fox speak of the discrimination and stress they have experienced through the account and outside of it. 

“I think DU talks a lot about inclusivity to a point where you start to believe it a little bit,” said Fox. “When I first got on campus, there was a lot of talk about all the diversity and all of the resources for students of color… I believed it myself. It wasn’t until I got on campus that I actually started to see that that wasn’t real. I think DU tries to create inclusive environments, but in a way where… it’s more just for clout than actually helping students. I think there’s a lot of work to be done around actually creating resources for students of color.” 

Fox, Ayad and all of the RememberX team also focuses on student demands that have gone unrecognized throughout DU’s history. Of the 44 documented demands made throughout DU’s history, only three have been officially met by the DU administration. 

Out of the many unmet demands, the highly contested movements to get rid of the Pioneer mascot, divest from fossil fuels and create a mandatory FSEM course addressing power, privilege and oppression are among those still being petitioned by DU students. The three that have been met to fulfillment were the building of the cultural house on York street, the blue light update project and the investigation of Aramark Corporation’s mistreatment of DU workers in 2015. 

“Honestly, that’s pretty much unacceptable, especially when these demands date back years,” said Ayad of the unmet demands. “It’s not like it’s a demand that has only been brought up once; most of these demands have been recurring… As sad as it is, marginalized communities at DU make up around 20 percent of DU. I think DU thinks, ‘Why would we meet this demand that will only work for less than 20 percent of DU?’ I don’t think they justify our demands because of how little we are.” 

The RememberX team procured a record of these demands through extensive research into DU’s history, a key element of the Instagram page. 

Like any social movement, the RememberX platform seeks to remind DU students of the history of injustice at the university to inform the future movements. While the account details points like the mocking of “my culture is not a costume” fliers and swastikas and “KKK” being etched into cars in 2017, it also delves back into the early history of the university. Most notably, it looks at the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre. 

“It’s not our opinion,” said Fox. “It’s just the history—you can’t really argue with that.” 

At many predominantly white institutions, students of color are at greater risk of mental health issues and an overall less satisfying college experience than their white counterparts. W.E.B DuBois introduced the concept of “double consciousness” which describes how black individuals often possess two different identities: an identity for white society and their true identity. This concept often extends to all marginalized communities on majorly-white college campuses. 

“I guess for the average student at DU, you come here, go to class, hang out with friends and it’s all good,” said Ayad. “I think it’s the little things that we notice in marginalized communities, the microaggressions that we go through in classrooms and the little looks that we get or the little comments we hear at work. That’s what makes it uncomfortable personally for me having to be a student here… you’re forced into being a student leader because of what you’ve been through and are going through.”

In the future, RememberX wants to continue to release student quotes, demands, and historical mentions. In addition, the team is currently working on building a website with all of their content that will provide a place for students to voice their experiences. 

“In the perfect DU world, we would get to see more actual action being taken,” said Fox. “There would be less emotional labor and having to devote hours of your life to this and more of the administration actually caring about you as a student.”

Want to support RememberX? The team encourages following their account, introducing it to friends, and engaging with their content. RememberX is always looking for more student quotes and resources on DU history. Contact them via Instagram or their email, rememberxproject@gmail.com.