Over the past couple of weeks, I watched Monster on Netflix—one episode a day. It was a tough watch, especially the first season about Jeffrey Dahmer. I couldn’t watch more than one episode per day, as the story is genuinely disturbing.

What I found particularly frustrating, on top of the main Dahmer storyline, was the constant portrayal of racism. It seemed to suggest that white men in general were to blame for what happened to Dahmer’s victims. Every Black character is depicted as a moral pillar, while the white cops are portrayed as either indifferent or complicit, supposedly because Dahmer was white as well.

Jesse Jackson is almost elevated to a heroic status in the final episodes, portrayed as a brave social justice warrior fighting systemic racism. The fact that Jackson may have used the case to further his own public image—capitalizing on a story that stirred outrage—is never even hinted at.

Dahmer was undoubtedly a monster, but his story is not one of hidden racism against “people of color,” as the show implies. He lived in a predominantly minority neighborhood, where Black residents were the majority. His specific apartment complex was known for poorly maintained housing for the poor and unemployed.

Interestingly, many of Dahmer’s victims were found in gay bars, suggesting his actions were motivated by sexual desire. He later admitted that he killed some victims because he “didn’t want them to leave.”

So he was a racist who intentionally lived in a black area to find black lovers to have gay sex with whom he didn’t want to leave – doesn’t sound convincing to me.

As for the systemic racism that is not just implied but openly pointed at: I would have loved to see the general conviction rates of homicide and murder in that neighborhood for that specific time frame by race and ethnicity.

Dahmer was clearly a sick man, but race was not a factor in his crimes, contrary to how the show and figures like Jesse Jackson seem to spin it. That the case caused massive public outrage despite lots of black on white murder happening at the same time without comparable media attention is actually a counter argument to any accusations of systemic racism against blacks in the Dahmer case.

In terms of quality, the show is well-made, though. Ryan Murphy knows how to produce this type of series. The acting is solid, the cinematography and music are good, yet the pacing can be slow at times.

Overall, it’s a difficult watch, even without the racial undertones. But it’s also worth it, if you can stomach such stories.