Equal to them means take away from the majority white population and give to the minority or in other words, as you said, equal is actually unequal. You see it everywhere now on tv, in advertising, the majority of company hiring policy etc. Where they will always pick the black, muslim, female, gay or whatever identity over the white male who is very much more qualified.
Look at TV advertising where you cannot change channels without seeing a lot of black people, even asians over white people, way too many to say they were not picked due to skin colour.