Bold claim.

> lots of people grow up without their fathers and do great.

"Lot's of people" succeed in poor families, in bad schools, in communities with crime. Trends and magnitude matter.

If the "single-parent" households were more equal across race, then perhaps it wouldn't be an area to focus on.

But they aren't.

> ignoring all the other challenges

No..

> there are much more obvious problems at work here than fatherlessness

> recognizing its lack of relevance.

I don't understand people who dismiss disparities between the fundamental societal structure, the core environment a child grows up in, the nuclear family, of one race to another as being insignificant.

I really don't understand how people can overlook its impact.

It even affects schooling and education, discipline, taking a role in ensuring a focus on "homework" vs getting in trouble / distracted outside of classroom, who children hang out with, why they fall into groups of bad influence as a proxy for male authority figures etc etc etc.

(I am NOT saying single mothers have no impact as well or that they are incompetent. Simply, that their job is made that much harder, and fathers have at least as much impact on child rearing as mothers, perhaps more in certain specific areas or for boys perhaps, and so cutting the parental contribution in half might have detrimental effects.)

http://educationnext.org/one-parent-students-leave-school-ea...

"Family structure has grown in importance over time"