Equate them in that individuals from those groups have given me the same message.
And some individuals who gave you those messages were probably also white and American and, say, post Baby-Boom generation. Do you also go around tarring all Caucasians and Americans and Gen Xers as equivalent to the KKK? If someone had run into a few black people who were lazy or theives, would that justify them calling African-Americans as dishonest shirkers as a group? Face it, you're a bigot, stereotyping in the worst way.