jQuery - how to check if two elements are the same?

I need to pass an element to a function and then match that specific element while traversing parent. The catch (for someone clueless like me) is that this element doesn't have an id. In the following example, I want every element to turn pink except the one clicked on that should turn yellow

function colorize(element) {
    element.parent().find('span').each(function() {
        if ($(this)===element) { // the problem is this is always false
            $(this).css('background','yellow');
        } else {
            $(this).css('background','pink');
        }
    });
}
$('span').click(function() {
    colorize($(this));
});