Andrew Ti

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dream – Andrew Ti

Host: Jane Marie
Guest: Andrew Ti (Taylor)
Release Date: December 19, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode marks a new chapter in The Dream podcast, now a weekly interview show with a broader focus, but still rooted in exploring the “American Dream” and the systemic barriers that make it difficult. Jane Marie sits down with Andrew Ti (Taylor), creator of the long-running show and podcast Yo, Is This Racist?, to dig deep into race, call-out culture, activism, and the often-difficult realities of confronting racism in America today.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins of "Yo, Is This Racist?"

• Andrew Ti shares the inception of his “racism clearinghouse,” which began as a Tumblr blog answering questions about racism—often in wry, blunt terms.
• Andrew’s background: Not an “expert” by his own admission, but uniquely positioned as one of few people of color in comedy writing rooms at Comedy Central.

Notable Quotes:

• “I feel like other people have done better in the intervening years, but it was a little bit just like baiting white people into asking questions that were relatively too extremely ignorant about other races and shooting those fish in a barrel because it was just sort of like, yeah, dude, of course that's racist.” — Andrew Ti (00:46)
• “What racists call politically correct is just what the rest of us call correct, right? That's correct… FYI, this will never get any less depressing.” — Jane Marie quoting Andrew’s early blog (01:39)

2. Accountability and the Role of the “Expert”

• Andrew jokes about his own qualifications and addresses criticisms (including not being Black) about being a public voice on racism.
• Discusses the burden and inappropriateness he felt being the “representation” in majority-white settings.
• Reflection on how the apparent simplicity of some racism questions underscores bigger societal issues.

Notable Quotes:

• “I'm not a fucking expert in anything… The fact that I can more or less pull this off says more about everyone else than about me.” — Andrew Ti (02:41)
• “Still not Black.” — Andrew Ti, tongue-in-cheek, on frequent identity questions (03:14)

3. Evolution into a Podcast & Changing Dynamics

• Andrew explains that taking the project into podcast format—with co-host Tawny Newsom—invited more interpersonal, sometimes combative, narratives, often involving family confrontations and workplace dramas.
• Notable increase in “tattletale” style calls—listeners venting about social or workplace incidents.

Timestamps & Quotes:

• “So, I was in a meeting and they had an icebreaker… if you could put anybody else on Mount Rushmore, who would you put… maybe we should just give it back to the tribes… Awkward conversation.” — Listener call (10:44)
• “I think the thing that happened when it turned into a podcast is it kind of became more like interpersonally combative in a… probably in a good way… The people who are, like, very clearly trying to use this as, like, their next step after the podcast comes out is going to be like, hey, dad, listen to this.” — Andrew Ti (04:57)

4. Confronting Everyday and Systemic Racism

• Recurring questions about privilege, social etiquette (e.g., emoji skin tone, tolerance of “nice” racists).
• Listeners confront revelations about close acquaintances’ political leanings or subtle racism, and ask how to respond or set boundaries.
• Andrew and Jane dissect the problem of “niceness” in progressive spaces, and the discomfort in confronting racism among acquaintances.

Memorable Moments:

• “If you have the type of Thanksgiving and the type of household that a Trump supporter could stand being in without saying something, I do think it's worth examining what your, like, niceness is like.” — Andrew Ti (07:29)

5. White Liberal Performances & Election Season

• Callers and hosts lament the condescension and entitlement often exhibited by white liberal voters towards Black and Brown communities during elections.
• Andrew expresses discomfort with both blatant (“overt”) and “insidious” liberal racism.
• Discussion includes pop culture references (“Nancy Pelosi in a kente cloth”), underscoring the performative aspects.

Quotes:

• “There was sort of this idea… I prefer overt racism. At least you know where people stand. Like, I don't like all these liberal white people who are racist but are just, you know, the like, get out variety type.” — Andrew Ti (09:12)

6. Activism and Mutual Aid

• Jane notes Andrew’s shift from commentator to active participant in causes, particularly mutual aid.
• Andrew describes his work with “Solidarity and Snacks,” a grassroots aid group in Skid Row, LA.
• He reflects on the psychological benefits of direct action versus the paralysis of “changing the world” as a concept.

Quotes:

• “I needed to sort of know more and be more and do more… because as I lear more about everything, it felt necessary to just be better and smarter.” — Andrew Ti (12:39)
• “Don’t think of this as building community. Think about it as these are the motherfuckers that we’re all in it with together. When it’s time to start throwing rocks—asterisk, I’m not suggesting anyone throw rocks—these are the people you’re going to be throwing rocks on the same side with.” — Andrew Ti (15:54)
• “At the end of the day, there’s just going to be like the billions of people on earth and Some, you know, 0.01% of them are going to have a better or worse life because you are around, and that’s really all it’s ever going to be, ever.” — Andrew Ti (19:35)

7. Calls for Action and Self-Care

• Listeners are encouraged to support mutual aid, whether by joining established groups or initiating small acts of direct support in their communities.
• Andrew and Jane both stress the importance of “showing up” in tangible ways and caution against perfectionism or paralysis.

Quotes:

• “Just give yourself something to do. That’s like moving a bunch of boxes from point A to point B… I found it to be immensely, psychologically helpful, personally.” — Andrew Ti (20:39)
• “Every time your friend with a membership goes to Costco and asks if you need anything, just give them a short list of stuff the local soup kitchen could use or things you could drop off on porches.” — Jane Marie (21:07)

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Notable Listener Calls & Segments (with Timestamps)

• [05:35] Tess from Seattle: Dilemma about a neighbor, a Trump supporter, attending Thanksgiving — should she be excluded or confronted?
• [10:44] Anonymous: Sharing cringe at a corporate icebreaker about adding a face to Mount Rushmore, leading to awkward conversations about Indigenous land.
• [17:13] Anonymous: Work story about a racist coworker making anti-Asian jokes, and the exhaustion of always being “the only one” to notice or care.

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Memorable Quotes

| Speaker | Quote | Timestamp | |------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------| | Andrew Ti | “If these motherfuckers are gonna keep asking me, I’m gonna tell them. And thank God I’m mostly right.” | 03:34 | | Jane Marie | “You sound tired. You sound tired.” (Empathizing with a caller confronting workplace racism) | 19:19 | | Andrew Ti | “It has gotten less fun and it’s sort of gotten significantly worse, I guess, after 2016.” | 09:12 | | Jane Marie | “I'm a big fan of calling out bad behavior in the moment.” | 07:20 | | Andrew Ti | “It just felt like my sort of off the cuff ignorance was not going to cut it anymore.” | 13:37 |

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Tone and Style

The episode is candid, blunt, and often sardonic, balancing humor with serious reflection. Andrew’s tone is self-effacing and honest, both critical and hopeful about the possibilities for progress. Jane’s approach is direct but caring, foregrounding both the gravity and absurdity of how racism manifests in everyday American life.

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Takeaways & Calls to Action

• The fight against racism is both big and small: systemic, but also personal and local.
• Don’t underestimate the impact of showing up, even when you can’t “fix” everything.
• Anyone can participate in mutual aid—find a group or start something small.
• Self-awareness, listening, and actually doing the work (not just talking about it) matter.

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Useful Links:

• Find Yo, Is This Racist? on all podcast platforms.
• Solidarity and Snacks (Instagram): To support mutual aid efforts on Skid Row.
• Andrew and Tawny’s new show Starter Trek at Suboptimal Pods.

Next Week: Jane and Dan discuss the holidays and their own traditions.

Transcript

[Andrew Taylor]

Jane Marie.

[Jane Marie]

I'm Jane Marie, and this is the dream. Recently, I've been inviting people on the show to answer a pretty straightforward question that's been bothering me. Is everything racist in America right now? Why does it feel so much more racist around here than it has in forever? We've had W. Kamau Bell on the program and Melinda Hale. Go back and listen. And this week I've invited my friend Andrew Taylor to the studio. Andrew has a very unique perspective on race. He's been running an advice service, I guess I don't know what you'd call it, a clearinghouse, let's say a racism clearinghouse, for about a decade where average folks ask him questions like mine, or even dumber ones.

[Andrew Taylor]

Yo, Is this Racist? Is the show that I started a long time ago off of a Tumblr blog where it sort of did a thing that I. I feel like other people have done better in the intervening years, but it was a little bit just like baiting white people into asking questions that were relatively too extremely ignorant about other races and shooting those fish in a barrel because it was just sort of like, yeah, dude, of course that's racist. That was the general tenor is like, what's wrong with you for even having to ask whether that's racist? The first one was about, is it racist? When Yosemite Sam says cotton pick and minute.

[Jane Marie]

Is it?

[Andrew Taylor]

Yeah, yeah, dude, just.

[Jane Marie]

I'm kidding. I was like doing a guess. And. The Tumblr blog was the place for questions like this. Many tongue in cheek, but still valid. Readers would submit short, sometimes incredibly short questions, like a line or two, and Andrew would sometimes only give a one or two word answer. Here's a selection from the early days of yo, is this Racist? The blog Is Tiki shit racist? Yeah, dog, yeah. What racists call politically correct is just what the rest of us call correct, right? That's correct. States rights always mean states rights to be racist, right? Yep. And this one was just a comment. FYI, this will never get any less depressing. To which Andrew says, thanks for the tip. So you started this project and tell me a little more about you.

[Andrew Taylor]

Why you sure? Well, that's the thing that was part of the joke was like, why me? It shouldn't be me. The fact that I can more or less pull this off says more about everyone else than about me was sort of the joke because I'm not a fucking expert in anything. I mean, the other thing that is notable was that people were, I would say reasonably, but also like not reasonably, a little not thrilled that I wasn't. That I wasn't. That I am not black.

[Jane Marie]

Oh, you're still not black?

[Andrew Taylor]

Still not black. Sorry, that came out awkward.

[Jane Marie]

No, I'm sorry.

[Andrew Taylor]

Like, that, to me was a little bit the joke. Like. So I was working at the time at this cable network that was comedy focused.

[Jane Marie]

Why don't you just say what it is?

[Andrew Taylor]

I don't know. I feel like at this point, it also doesn't exist. I was working at Comedy Central.

[Jane Marie]

Yeah.

[Andrew Taylor]

And so, so, so, so, so often I was the only person of color in any given, like, meeting. And so a lot of times when shit like this would come up, not like they would turn and look at me, but it was a little, just like, corner of the eye, the locus of attention would a little bit be drawn to me. It was, like, wildly inappropriate that I was that person. But that was sort of the joke. I was like, if these motherfuckers are gonna keep asking me, I'm gonna tell them. And thank God I'm mostly right. Because these questions are not difficult. I mean, that was sort of the underlying thing is, like, these are not difficult questions.

[Jane Marie]

So Andrew then turned Yo, Is this Racist? Into a podcast, which is co hosted by Tawny Newsom, where people call in and leave voicemails. I wondered if that new format changed anything as far as the types of questions he got. Like, I'm sure you get calls where you're like, oh, this question again, sure.

[Andrew Taylor]

You know, just on a dumb level, there's little, like, Internet gotcha.

[Tess]

Ing.

[Andrew Taylor]

There's like, what color skin tones is appropriate for which emojis, depending on your race type. That is sort of, like, weirdly pervasive. At the heart of it, it's like, listen, the world is the world, and it's only getting worse. But how do I deal with these situations?

[Jane Marie]

Aren't they a lot of relationship issues? Like, my boyfriend thinks this, and I think it's wrong.

[Andrew Taylor]

I think the thing that happened when it turned into a podcast is it kind of became more like interpersonally combative in a. Probably in a good way in the, like, check out this shit. My racist dad did that. That is sort of my favorite variety is the, like, the people who are, like, very clearly trying to use this as, like, their next step after the podcast comes out is going to be like, hey, dad, listen to this. You know, okay, so here was one kind of recently that was like, oh, someone at my Thanksgiving revealed that they voted for Trump and they were. Did not regret it.

[Tess]

Hi, Andrew and Connie. This is Tess, Seattle, Big fan of the pod. Thank you for everything you guys do. So for Thanksgiving this year, we hosted and we have always been inviting our neighbor and she's just this little lady who never spent holidays with her family. And so we always invite her to come over and I guess she revealed to somebody else at our Thanksgiving that she voted for Trump and does not regret it. This has been very harrowing to learn. Didn't think that it would have been the case. There were no signs that this was the way she felt about the world. But I'm just wondering what you guys think in terms of, do I need to be more proactive in telling her you will not be invited to our home in the future for this reason, or is it, is it acceptable in this environment to just basically ghost to this old woman? Do I need to put one of those, like, hate has no home here flags in my front yard to just kind of like subtly try to let her know? It just, it feels like a real blind side. And I was just wanting some advice.

[Andrew Taylor]

On it and there was a little bit of like, like, I think it's kind of nice and I think we do it in a way that our audience finds to be, like, acceptable and helpful, which is like, kind of making fun of the caller.

[Jane Marie]

I'm a big fan of calling out bad behavior in the moment.

[Andrew Taylor]

Yes.

[Jane Marie]

Why didn't you say anything at Thanksgiving?

[Andrew Taylor]

Yeah. If you have the type of Thanksgiving and the type of household that a Trump supporter could stand being in without saying something, I do think it's worth examining what you're like, niceness is like, because, like, how is that possible really? I mean, all the people in your.

[Jane Marie]

Circle were also that polite and unruffled.

[Andrew Taylor]

I remember, I mean, I. Years and years and years ago now, we did a pilot for MTV of Yo, is this Racist? And one of the big questions the executives had was like, well, how do you know there's, you're going to have enough material for, you know, stuff every week? And it was really hard just to be like, trust me, it's going to be fine. As in, it's not going to be fine, but there's going to be plenty of material.

[Tess]

Hi, team Yo. I'm calling about an opportunity for you guys to maybe preempt a bit of racism because, yay, it's election season. Which means it's only a matter of time before all the well meaning white liberals emerge from their sound baths and yoga and ayahuasca streets and shit and start acting like, you know, the votes of Brown and black communities are theirs and then start shaming them if they don't do what they want. So I was just thinking, do you guys have any thoughts on ways to gently guide these clowns into finding a more productive way to engage and not just the obnoxious assholes? Cool, thanks.

[Andrew Taylor]

I will say, as someone who has largely been proven right about the state of race in America, it has gotten less fun and it's sort of gotten significantly worse, I guess, after. In the 2016 election, there was sort of this idea that was glib and not probably true, but a little tongue in cheek, but kind of not enough tongue in cheek that was like, oh, I prefer overt racism. At least you know, where people stand. Like, I don't like all these liberal white people who are racist but are just, you know, the like, get out variety type of. Or maybe, maybe those people are a little more insidious, of course, and direct. But. But yeah, that's sort of like the Nancy Pelosi and a kente cloth kind of racist. You know, she doesn't even know she's racist, right? First of all, she does. And second of all, turns out like, as. As. I'm not saying those people were good, but guess what the unabashed open racists are worth.

[Jane Marie]

Back to our discussion with Andrew T. But first, another call he received from a yo, is this racist listener. My favorite type of call, which has become more popular is just people tattling for our amusement. You'll hear Andrew and Tawny reacting on tape.

[Unknown Caller 1]

Hi, I'm just calling to tell on people from work because this was really cringey. So I was in a meeting and they had a, an icebreaker question. And the icebreaker question was, if you could put anybody else on Mount Rushmore, who would you put on Mount Rushmore? And it was in a zoom meeting. And all I could think was, maybe we shouldn't put anyone else on Mount Rushmore. Maybe we should just give it back to the tribes that that mountain belongs to. And I was really debating if I should say anything or not. And somebody said rbg. Somebody said Renee Brown. Somebody said Martin Luther King. Somebody said Harriet Tubman, just because.

[Jane Marie]

Yeah.

[Unknown Caller 1]

And then, and then somebody else said, I might suggest returning the mount back to its original state. The Black Hills are beautiful.

[Andrew Taylor]

And.

[Unknown Caller 1]

And the person running the meeting said, yes, but think about how much it took to put. To build Mount Rushmore to begin with. It's so fascinating and interesting and I, I can't right now. So I just wanted to share because it was a really Awkward conversation. So I guess.

[Tess]

Yeah. Just wanted to share. Thanks.

[Unknown Caller 1]

Bye. Love your show.

[Jane Marie]

At a certain point, Andrew became one of my most politically active friends. Not running for office or doing any huge organizing or anything like that, but he began to think about not just making commentary on racism, but about what actions he could take that could potentially make any sort of difference in this fight. He was essentially waging against the powers that be.

[Andrew Taylor]

Basically, I think what happened was as both the world got more serious and my awareness increased of how the world was, I felt like, yo, as this racist, I needed to sort of know more and be more and do more to. To, I don't know, like, take this responsibility that I didn't really ask for or understand or. And it's not like, you know, a great responsibility, but it was like this thing where I was like, okay, I probably do need to be more responsible because as I lear more about everything, it felt necessary to just be better and smarter.

[Jane Marie]

So it went from being like a tongue in cheek kind of jokey thing where you're sort of making fun of racism to a place you got to a place where you felt like a responsibility. Yeah.

[Andrew Taylor]

Or the nuance started to feel like it mattered. It just felt like my sort of off the cuff ignorance was not going to cut it anymore. So that's why it started to feel like I needed to do more, be more and understand more. It wasn't as much a thing where I was like, oh, today's the day I finally actively turn the corner and be the person I feel like I maybe ought to have been always. It was sort of starting in 2020, I got much more involved in looking at things and calling and rather than volunteerism, calling it and thinking about it as mutual aid, which is, I know it's a topic that many people who are way more both experienced and knowledgeable than me have have talked about and written about. So which is why I'm. I'm not bringing anything intellectually new to this. But I do think I have like a way of talking about it that is like, for like, I don't know, the person who was like an enthusiastic Obama voter who kind of thought like, oh, the world is going to be okay and therefore is ultimately on some level sort of selfish. That person can also derive a net energizing effect from doing solidarity and snacks, which is a mutual aid crew that I try to help out with as much as I can. Solidarity and snacks is just a, at this point, one of the longer running, I believe, mutual aid groups that operates out of Skid row in Los Angeles. We are there. I believe we've missed sort of two or three Saturdays in the last. Going on five years now, six years, which is. Which I think for this type of group is quite good. Yeah, we just at the very baseline, just hand out snacks and medical, like light medical supplies, food when we can, clothing when we can. But just sort of trying to support the community of people on skid row, finding the like, immediate returns on something like that, which is the, like, this is good for my brain. I like being with these people. Once I got used to it and it wasn't like super easy. I like like straight up having friends on skid row and even better, I like having people that I find kind of annoying on skid row. It's like, you know, I'm not rude to them. It's like, oh yeah, that dude's a little annoying to me. We don't have the same. Because. Because it's like we're all people and what I will just throw out there. And I don't know if this is helpful, but it was helpful to me, which is that don't think of this as building community. Think about it as these are the motherfuckers that we're all in it with together. When it's time to start throwing rocks, asterisk. I'm not suggesting anyone throw rocks. Anyone else, but when it's time to start throwing rocks, these are the people you are going to be throwing rocks on the same side with. Like, these are. These are your people for like that whatever your version of that kind of shit is.

[Jane Marie]

Are you saying that you're, you know, like, hoping for a revolution of some sort?

[Andrew Taylor]

No, that's. What, What? No, no, that's what I'm saying is I don't fudgeing know, but like. And the thing is, it's like getting what I was. And I'm not trying to dodge it. I am saying, like endlessly. Having the debate about whether it's time or what, how it's going to look of like revolution type stuff is to me not the point.

[Unknown Caller 2]

I'm leaving a voice message about my coworkers because they just don't seem to get racism. So I am in this group of white women, I am the only person of color. And there's this guy from another shift. He comes in sometimes to work overtime and he'll sit at our table and everyone thinks he's so fucking funny. Except sometimes, oh no, the guy will say something completely racist. For example. This is probably the worst one that he's ever done in front of me. But he, like, made a joke that stormtroopers must be Asian because they can't hit anything. And then he did a squinty eyes.

[Jane Marie]

What.

[Unknown Caller 2]

Which is. It's just terrible. But you know, racists, you know, they are what they are. This guy, he does the whole thing. I. Well, I. I don't discriminate against anybody. I was just like, well, if you don't discriminate against me, you're just an asshole to everyone. And. But what really gets me is how everyone else, all the, you know, all these white women I work with, just think he's so fucking funny. And I feel really fucking, you know, kind of hung out to dry here as the only person of color. And I'm like, if I make a stink about it, about this person, they all, like, they're all gonna be mad at me. I did, I did actually talk to my supervisor about this guy. So he's not hopefully gonna be saying shit like that around because it's just stupid and you shouldn't be racist. So, like, I did elevate it. But I'm not worried about him. I'm worried about the people who I work with. You know, I like them a lot and I want to keep liking them, but shit like this is. Makes it difficult. Yeah, you so tired.

[Jane Marie]

Yeah, you sound tired. You sound tired.

[Andrew Taylor]

At the end of the day, there's just going to be like the billions of people on earth and Some, you know, 0.01% of them are going to have a better or worse life because you are around, and that's really all it's ever going to be, ever. And so when you kind of like set yourself within that framework and realize that not being able to, like, change the world is okay, then you're able to, like, be less paralyzed, I think, just like, the reality is the reality. So what are we really gonna do about it? I find to me hand wringing. Well, no, it's not that I find the hand wringing to be unhelpful because I'm a hand wringer as well, but I am also just like, do you know what really helps me during the fires here? Like, we're fucking going out with PPE and just taking it out to skid row or like getting. Getting people food in places like Altadena was where I was like, mostly concentrating on and like, just like giving yourself. I think maybe this is also maybe a kind of sad byproduct of the, I don't know, whatever phones era, which is like, just give yourself something to do. That's like moving a bunch of boxes from point A to point B. In a way that's actually helpful. I found it to be immensely, psychologically helpful, personally.

[Jane Marie]

If you would like to help Andrew in his on the ground efforts, you can support solidarity and snacks by visiting their Instagram page of the same name and or you could start a similar effort in your own town. It's hard, but not that hard. Every time your friend with a membership goes to Costco and asks if you need anything, just give them a short list of stuff the local soup kitchen could use or things you could drop off on porches. You can find yo is this Racist? On all the podcast platforms. And please check out Andrew and Tawny's new show and I buried the lead here, but Tawny is a star of Star Trek, one of the new Star Trek stars. She and Andrew have a show now called Starter Trek and you can find it at Suboptimal Pods. You can also get ad free versions of this [e-mail] cast.com See you next week where Dan and I are just going to talk about the holidays.