Story highlights Sally Kohn: News reports of white biker gang rampage didn't mention race, but when blacks involved in violence, press makes it main point

She says media feeds false narrative that leads Americans polled to say that crimes more likely to be committed by black or brown people

Sally Kohn is an activist, columnist and television commentator. Follow her on Twitter: @sallykohn. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) On Sunday, just after news broke of a shootout in Waco, Texas, involving "rival biker gangs" as The New York Times alert phrased it, the political activist Shaun King wrote on Twitter:

"I'll wait (and wait and wait and wait) to hear someone on the news call what just happened in Waco 'white on white' violence."

Sally Kohn

When reporter Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times responded, "do we even know the race of the bikers yet?" activist Deray Mckesson tweeted:

"If they were black gangs, we'd certainly know by now. That's the point. Waco."

One of the most distinct characteristics of white privilege is the privilege to be unique. When white people commit violent acts, they are treated as aberrations, slips described with adjectives that show they are unusual and in no way representative of the broader racial group to which they belong.