"My kid's medical records are literally attached to my wife's medical records - I have to login with her username and password to view after visit summaries etc"
Some of these decisions are in the hands of software teams. Ask out loud in a team meeting about supporting other family structures: single parents, orphans, same-sex couples, grandparent-as-guardians, etc. "The MVP works for most of our users" isn't good enough.
It's likely that the generalized solution is overall simpler too even if you won't get to use an easy label like "mother" on the form.
> 2. Disparate outcomes, either in terms of arrests, commission of crimes, or false positives/negatives, does not make this (or any other) system racist as long as explicit discrimination is not being performed based on race.
This definition of racism, and bigotry more generally, is too narrow to be useful. For some well known examples look up how applicants from certain ZIP codes were more likely to be denied financial services. Or how resumes with certain names were less likely to be hired despite the same experience. Race wasn't an input in those decisions yet the end result is obviously racist.
You seem like a critical thinker, so please consider this question:
If companies and government agents generally aren't even unintentionally racist, how do you explain people of color's significantly worse outcomes?
Some of these decisions are in the hands of software teams. Ask out loud in a team meeting about supporting other family structures: single parents, orphans, same-sex couples, grandparent-as-guardians, etc. "The MVP works for most of our users" isn't good enough.
It's likely that the generalized solution is overall simpler too even if you won't get to use an easy label like "mother" on the form.