Java isInstance vs instanceOf operator

The whole generics thing is kinda throwing me for a loop, and more so the RTT.

Specificis? Ah well here's the gist:

enum QueryHelper {
  query1,
  query2;
  static <T> QueryHelper getQueryHelper (Class<T> expectedReturn) {
    if (expectedReturn.isInstance (SomeRelatedClass.class))
      return query1;
    else
      return query2;
  }
}

and then I would call it like so:

...
QueryHelper helper = QueryHelper.getQueryHelper(SomeRelatedClass.class);
...

This is so that I can really flexibly assign the query return type in the actual helper. It does some casting and object creation. What I am seeing is that there is no match, should I be doing this some other way? Or is the whole idea just bad?

And the real heart of this is that I don't understand the difference between class.isInstance and the instanceOf operator? Should I be using the latter?