Letter: Poverty does not equal criminality

The writer of the letter “OJ: An American Tragedy” may want to reconsider the tone of her argument. She states that O.J., raised in poverty (“ghetto Black”) by a single mother, was never “taught the accountrements that are supposed to accompany wealth.” The implication is that people in poverty are morally deficient and prone to violence. But is it not true that all people regularly fail to act morally, that some fail in profoundly violent ways, and that the struggles of poor people are the result of a lack of money, not the lack of instruction from people from the advantaged classes? The tone of her letter is elitist. I suggest a rewrite, and in the next draft, I would leave out the word “accountrements.”