cooper-mbp:bandersnatch cooper$ python3
Python 3.6.2 (default, Jul 17 2017, 16:44:45)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 8.1.0 (clang-802.0.42)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> a = u'cooper'
>>> b = 'cooper'
>>> a == b
True
>>> type(a)
<class 'str'>
>>> type(b)
<class 'str'>
>>>