Back in the early 1990s, there was a spate of violent black on white crimes, that the media heavily reported on, because they sold newspapers )newspapers and got people to watch TV broadcasts. Some black groups (sorry, can't remember exactly which ones but I seem to recall it was mainly college groups, not so much nationals organizations)protested the coverage, saying it was contributing to the perception that black men are violent way beyond their proportion in society . The newspaper owners and editors took heed, and THAT'S when the description of suspects as "male, 5' 8", 200 lbs" became ubiquitous-that trope has been around since at least the mid/late 1990s. The thing is, now we're on to that little trick, and so whenever the race isn't given, we all assume it's a black suspect-even though in some cases, the race might really *not* be known, due to lack of eyewitnesses and physical evidence such as hair or blood, which might indicate race. So the trope as well as being irritating and ineffective is completely counter productive.
Maybe where you live your history of black on white crime in the 1990s being reported on was the case, but at least in the Seattle area the media has been “sensitive” to this for far longer than that. Around here we have been translating eye witness descriptions of criminals that have not included the race as meaning black since the 1970s.
The sad state of the media. If they were about the real business of the news a lot of our ills would not be.