diff --git a/kernel/bits.c b/kernel/bits.c
index 0ccb267..bfec25f 100644
--- a/kernel/bits.c
+++ b/kernel/bits.c
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ void bit_set_range(unsigned long *bitfield, usize first, usize count)
 	/* test if the entire bit range is contained within this longword */
 	if (bit + count < LONG_BIT) {
 		unsigned long low_mask = (1lu << bit) - 1;			/* 0b000..011 */
-		unsigned long high_mask = ~0lu ^ ((1lu << (bit + count)) - 1);	/* 0b110..000 */
+		unsigned long high_mask = ~( (1lu << (bit + count)) - 1 );	/* 0b110..000 */
 		*bitfield |= ~(low_mask | high_mask);
 	} else {
 		/* if the first bit isn't longword aligned, manually set the upper
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ void bit_clr_range(unsigned long *bitfield, usize first, usize count)
 
 	if (bit + count < LONG_BIT) {
 		unsigned long low_mask = (1lu << bit) - 1;
-		unsigned long high_mask = ~0lu ^ ((1lu << (bit + count)) - 1);
+		unsigned long high_mask = ~( (1lu << (bit + count)) - 1 );
 		*bitfield &= low_mask | high_mask;
 	} else {
 		if (bit != 0) {