Compare XPATH text to string

I want to assert true/false based on the text under this XPATH is equal to a string.

//div[@class='message au-board']

so

//div[@class='message au-board']/text()

Here is the code I have

el = (By.XPATH, ".//div[@class='message au-board']/text()]")
assert el == "AppleOrangeGrape"

Printing el gives: ('xpath', ".//div[@class='message au-board']/text()")

In Dev Tools pasting ".//div[@class='message au-board']/text()" highlights the exact text I want to compare my string to: AppleOrangeGrape