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The Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer (2016) shares the story of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin native exonerated for sexual assault charges after wrongfully serving nearly two decades in prison, only to be arrested again for first-degree murder following his release. After the success of the Serial podcast (2014) and HBO’s multi-part documentary The Jinx (2015), Netflix purchased the rights to the documentary. The series is an episodic narrative exploring the police corruption that falsely imprisoned Avery for the sexual assault charge as well as discussing the second crimanal conviction. The documentarians first learned about the case from an article about Avery and The Innocence Project’s efforts to overturn his original conviction.

The reaction to Making a Murderer is best described as palpable, especially on social media. Viewers and fans trended multiple twitter hashtags like #freenstevenavery and #justiceforstevenavery. A petition for President Obama to pardon Avery reached over 128,000 signatures and prompted a response from the White House. The documentary resonated with viewers and reaped praise from critics; however, the response to the documentary spawned some unanticipated consequences for those involved in the case.

The majority of viewers share their opinions and theories about Avery’s guilt or innocence online, but a small percentage have taken their vehemence for the transgressions against Steven Avery further. Following a spate of threats of violence against officials in Manitowoc County, the filmmakers are now on the defense about their narrative version of the events in both cases. But there is something important getting lost in the noise about Avery’s guilt or innocence because this documentary teaches us an invaluable lesson about how privilege manifests in American society.

Steven Avery’s story has some unique aspects, yet he is not the only man convicted and sentenced for a crime he did not commit in the United States. In fact, he is far from alone as an innocent man in the system. So the situation begs the question: why is this specific case garnering this level of attention? The Innocence Project, the group that helped exonerate Avery after his first conviction, is a national organization that overturned 300 wrongful convictions since it began and is currently working on over 300 new, active cases. Avery’s case highlights dark truths about our legal system and shatters the comfortable bubble of privilege experienced by many Americans in the Netflix audience who have limited prior knowledge and exposure to the rampant abuses experienced by many in the our justice system.

The word privilege can be defined as “the principle or condition of enjoying special rights or immunities,” and the conceptualization describes societal privileges granted to some individuals based typically on their race, class or gender. Cases and wrongful convictions like Avery’s are happening nationwide; however, they seem to happen most often to black men and poor Americans, so those not in these social groups have historically been immune or blind to prejudiced malpractices. Roughly 70% of those exonerated with help from The Innocence Project were black males. If most of the exonerated are men of color, then it is arguably also true that men of color are wrongfully convicted at higher rates than white men. There are arguments that white privilege is hard to define, but clearly those who do not have it understand better how it operates.

Again, men of color are not the only people in America disproportionately affected by these miscarriages of justice, and privilege is not exclusively applicable to white men. A public defender is assigned if you cannot afford a lawyer, but their caseloads are often unmanageable, and most states do not allow them to drop cases even if they cannot reasonably take them on with undivided attention. The statistics on public defenders highlights how much the odds are stacked against anyone wrongfully accused of a crime if they cannot afford an attorney and become one of too many cases taken on by their local public defender. Making a Murderer draws needed attention to the plight of every innocent convict like Steven Avery who falls prey to judicial oppression while also ending the privileged obliviousness too many of us experience that allows us to ignore these problems.

The circumstances allowing for wrongful convictions to continue in America are innumerable, but the success of Making a Murderer proves there are new potential allies in the fight for a more equal justice system in America. In the era of Black Lives Matter and days after Beyoncé celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther movement in her Super Bowl 50 halftime performance, the veil of privilege envisioned by Dubois is being lifted.

Watch Making a Murderer again, and think about why this story actually stuck with you. Thanks to the success of the series, the veil of privilege in America is being pulled back farther — hopefully far enough that we cannot unsee what we are currently seeing. The series offers an easy-to-follow and endearing lesson on privilege in America for your next water cooler discussion about this Netflix hit, so learn from it and spread the message.