On a two-week lecture tour, W. Kamau Bell stopped at the Great Hall in the Memorial Union on March 4 with the intent of ending modern-day racism.

A San Francisco native, Bell had big success in early tours before meeting one of his executive producers, Chris Rock.

“I was doing this show, Chris Rock came and saw it, and then he said he wanted to help me get a TV show even though he didn’t know me. He said, ‘You’re a smart black guy and smart black guys don’t usually get TV shows,’” Bell said. “The whole process has been crazy. I didn’t know it before this, but now we talk regularly and he’s been such a driving force in my career.”

Bell’s lecture tour titled “Ending Racism in About an Hour” had central themes that encompassed old versus new racism, how to evolve our conversations about racism, the made-up world of “post racism” and how it’s so embedded in today’s society that people stop realizing they’re doing it.

“We realize now that the country and demographics are changing; the things people care about are changing. You see this weird racism now where it’s not like the old, where it’s ‘we hate you,’ now it’s ‘we like you, but in a racist way,’” Bell said.

Today’s racism is more subtle, and becoming harder and harder to spot. As told by Bell, old racism is the exciting days of the 1960s where there were trials and court cases and fighting and arguments. Today’s racism is the subliminal messages and hidden undertones of racist comments and backward compliments.

Instances of this happen every day, even to ISU students.

“In terms of people always asking me where I’m from, they’re implying that I’m not from the United States, which I am,” said Susana Hernandez, member of the Latino Graduate Student Association, “We’re not in a post-racial society, but I think that’s the danger — that we think that we are — so we think that racism doesn’t exist because we’re post-racial; we have a black president.“

On a more comedic note, Bell informed the audience that according to the U.S. census, Arab people from the Middle East fall under the white race category.

“We don’t think of Arabs as white; I don’t even think Arabs think of themselves as white,” Bell said. “I have a lot of Arab friends that are like ‘Man, I never realized how awesome it is to be white and Arab. It’s amazing, like when I go to the airport they don’t even make me go in line, I get to go to a special room!’”

According to Bell, race isn’t even a thing; it’s something made up. He does, however, believe that racism is real.

Bell currently is on tour and will be returning back home within the next few weeks to continue making his show, “Totally Biased.” New shows will be coming out May 9th on the TV channel FX.