“I believe in turning the lights on and making the roaches run away,” said Touré, NBC Correspondent and author.

Audience members laughed and applauded as Touré brought humor and wit to the typically serious topic of racism as he spoke in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 2.

He began the lecture by reading clips from his book, “Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to Be Black Now.” He interviewed 105 prominent African Americans and read some of the stories they told him.

Among those he interviewed, one man proudly talked about an incident when he was able to steal a few guns, rally some of his friends and walk into Ku Klux Klan head quarters. He walked in with his 375 Magnum, pointed it at a guy and said, “You know what this is.”

Upon hearing Touré read this, the crowd burst into laughter. The man in the story ended up stealing around $6,000 dollars from the KKK and spending over three years in jail. Touré said that the man said, “When I went to jail, I was the king.”

Other stories that Touré read were not so humorous.

“Black people are damaged by this moment of racism,” Touré said.

After reading more stories, Touré explained what ‘blackness’ is today. He described modern day blackness as “malevolent ghosts.” By this he meant that racism is not as obvious in today’s society as it was in Martin Luther King Jr.’s time. Touré opened it up to discussion.

“I have experienced a lot of it,” said Garang Garang, senior in management information systems and president of the South Sudanese Student Association. “We always talk about it, and there’s no solutions.”

Touré addressed Garang and said that the problem is mostly institutional racism: white supremacy. He also explained that it is not easy to create solutions.

“[Modern racism is] not an easy smoking gun where we can prove racism without a shadow of a doubt,” Touré said.

The lecture focused on what racism means, how it affects people and on a comical note, ‘what black people don’t do’.

Touré also touched on what African Americans can do to deal with racism in their lives. He said they need to realize that they can achieve something high and difficult without letting being black hold them back.

“And I still rise,” Touré said.

To read more about the stories and what people can do, pick up a copy of his book. The lecture is sponsored as part of the National Affairs Series and the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Series.