Yoshie Kateada

Dr. Laura Stivers

HONO 3501.1
18 April 2013

Active Listening: The First Step of Structural Change

I met a man named Felix while volunteering at the St. Vincent De Paul help desk. The help desk
provides support to the homeless population; most often this support is monetary or comes in the form of
bus tickets and the like. They help people pay to obtain ID cards, or offer checks for gas money. I only
spent about a half an hour with Felix, but I think that his story will stay with me for a long time. Felix is a
single father to five children, and when he came to the help desk, he and his family were on the verge of
homelessness. He had been unemployed for about fifteen months when he came to St. Vincents. His
previous job was a janitorial position at a school. He was let go when there was a misunderstanding and
he brought one of his kids to work with him for about fifteen minutes. He thought that they had given
him permission to do so, but it ended up costing him his job. Felix came into the office with a big smile
on his face, and he was incredibly positive for most of the duration of our conversation with him. Then,
all at once, he put his head down on the desk and cried. He told us how he gained his citizenship by
completing an astronomical amount of community service hours. He told us that he never smokes or
drinks. He explained that when his eldest daughter got pregnant in her teens, he promised her that he
would provide for both her and the baby. I do not know the whole story, and to be sure it is more
complicated than it looks, but Felix seemed to be an incredibly honorable man.
Felixs story will stay with me because it is a human story. It is one piece of what it can mean to
be part of the nameless and faceless group simply called the homeless. Hearing the stories of Felix, and
all of the people I met and had conversations with at St. Vincents, made it clear to me that active listening
is a vital part of changing the structures that cause homelessness. To make significant change it is first
necessary to make the effort to see all people as human. Much individual prejudice, as well as structural
oppression, occurs because the oppressors do not view the oppressed as fully human. Dehumanization
creates a lack of respect and empathy. While we must work to enact change on a structural level, it can be
argued that before policies are changed we must first change the way we look at the oppressed.

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In my service at St. Vincent De Paul I observed the power that active listening possesses to generate
this sort of awareness. St. Vincents offers services to meet the immediate needs of the homeless. For
example, they provide meals and offer bus money, but they are not working to create structural change.
However, I would argue that some of their volunteers are very consciously engaging in this necessary
precursor to structural change: active listening. Additionally, when the volunteers listen and offer
emotional support at the help desk, there seemed to be a certain amount of relief that was gained by the
homeless people; knowing that someone knew their story. Change cannot happen unless these stories
become known. Not only do homeless people deserve to have their stories heard, but the privileged need
to hear these stories in order to begin to understand what it would really mean to change the structures of
society. By addressing the issues of poverty and homelessness with an emphasis on active listening,
people are able to further step outside of their worldview and enact structural change by realizing that
everyone is human and therefore equally worthy of respect.
In her book Disrupting Homelessness Dr. Laura Stivers discusses some of the obstacles to real human
connection between those who aim to help homeless people and the homeless people themselves. Using
the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions as a case study, Stivers explains that when workers at the
Rescue Mission are constantly exposed to chronic homelessness, it can become very easy to see the cause
of all homelessness in individual faults (Stivers, 71). Before I volunteered at St. Vincents I had a number
of unconscious assumptions about homeless people. I had, for example, assumed that each person I met
would look the way I assumed a homeless person to look. I did not realize this at the time, but this is one
way of assuming the cause of homelessness to be individual fault, rather than structural disadvantage.
When you assume that a homeless person will look a certain way, you are assuming that it will be clear to
you why they are homeless. For example, I have, on numerous occasions, unconsciously assumed that a
person was homeless because they appeared to be mentally ill. When I went to St. Vincents I encountered
many people who looked homeless and many who did not, but I would imagine that if I was constantly
exposed to chronically homeless people who looked homeless; without some sort of education, I would
most likely begin attributing their homelessness to my assumptions about who they are as individuals.
This sets up a very obvious barrier to active listening. Take people out of the structures that caused their

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misfortune and they seem to be at fault. It is very hard to actively and compassionately listen to someone
when you assume them to be guilty.
This is not to say that the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions is not making a difference in some
peoples lives, but this organization is just one example of the problems that can exist within charity work
(Stivers, 85). In general, organizations focused on charity are not working to enact structural level
change. They certainly help the homeless in tangible ways, by offering food and housing, but they are not
in the business of changing the structures that caused the homeless people to need food and housing.
However, these organizations can actively combat the prevalence of stereotypes by awareness and active
listening. If education is in place to inform people of the structural causes of homelessness and help them
to step outside of their preconceptions about who the homeless are, a huge transformation can occur.
Actual structures may not be dismantled, but, through active listening, people can come to see each other
as human. This is the first step in recognizing the changes that need to occur on a structural level.
I met four different volunteers in my time at the help desk. The first day, I met Bonnie and Jack.
Each of them took an average of twenty minutes with each person that came in for help. Bonnie shared
with us that sometimes she does not know what to do with all the stories she hears. She said that most
times all she can think to do is pray. Jack was new to the help desk. He took his time with each person
who came in, and he seemed to be very conscious as he listened to peoples stories. The second day I met
Ruth Anne and Becky. They were very friendly, explaining that they volunteer at St. Vincents each
Wednesday. Ruth Anne and Becky probably spent an average of ten minutes with each person they
helped. They were both fairly business like in their manner and rather pre-occupied the entire time. For
example, at one point they had a fairly lengthy conversation about a dinner party Ruth Anne had planned
for that evening. They were talking about this as a man, whose green card had just been stolen, was
being helped by their supervisor.
There was a huge contrast between the way that these four volunteers reacted to the people they
helped. Bonnie and Jack came to St. Vincents with a certain awareness of the humanity of the people
they were helping. They asked questions beyond what they were required to ask, and after each person
left they debriefed with those of us who were shadowing them. In these debriefs they talked about how to

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best use the limited emergency resources that St. Vincent offers, to help these people. They spoke of the
people they were helping with respect, referring to them by their names and, as much as seemed
reasonable, assuming them to be telling the truth. They both acknowledged the difficulty of determining
where the truth lies in peoples stories, but they did this in a way that seemed to acknowledge this to be
the case with all people, not just those who are homeless. They cared, not from a place of duty, but from
a place of empathy.
Bonnie and Jacks approach is akin to what Dr. Martin Luther King talks about in his article On
Being a Good Neighbor. King writes about the neighbor as anyone you find along lifes roadside;
anyone you encounter who is in need (King, 31). When you meet this person you are to see yourself in
them, and by perceiving them in this way, it is possible to cultivate real empathy for them rather than pity
(King, 30). King writes that true altruism is more than the capacity to pity; it is the capacity to
sympathize (King, 35). This transition from pity to empathy is connected to the transition from viewing
altruism as doing something for disadvantaged peoples to doing something with them (King, 36). King
writes that we must be aware of the circumstances of. . .injustice that cause a need for us to be altruistic,
otherwise we risk acting out of paternalism which no self-respecting person can accept (King, 35, 36).
Bonnie and Jack were volunteering for an organization which, for the most part, does not affect structural
change. However, they possessed the awareness that is the first step in making this sort of change. They
actively listened to the human stories, and they listened from a place of empathy.
Ruth Anne and Becky were quite different in their approach to working at the help desk. To
different degrees, everyone who enters St. Vincents, enters with preconceived notions. I certainly did. I
would imagine that some of the homeless people come to the help desk with assumptions of their own,
and Bonnie and Jack assume things about the people they help. It seems to be inevitable given the
collision of cultures and experiences that exists within St. Vincents walls. However, Ruth Anne and
Becky were especially blatant in their assumptions. For example, one young women came in and ended
up spending a fair amount of time with Becky, or at least more time than seemed to be the norm for that
day. After the young women left Becky made a comment about the young womens hesitancy to take
responsibility for her own life choices. This was not said in so many words, but it was alluded to as Ruth

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Anne nodded her head in agreement. Ruth Anne met with a young woman who she had known
previously. As the meeting went on, it became clear that when the young women had become pregnant
Ruth Annes church had helped her to find an adoptive family for her child. Ruth Anne asked the young
women how she was doing, and the response was fine with just enough elaboration to be polite. It was
a remarkably guarded conversation on both ends. My view may be far from the truth of what they were
both feeling, but the young women seemed rather wary and Ruth Anne seemed to be working hard to
override her feelings of disgust.
Timothy Harris writes about this phenomena in his address The Politics of Disgust. Harris
discusses a study done at Princeton in which an MRI brain scan was used to determine how various
groups of people were perceived. He writes that when pictures of homeless people and drug addicts
were shown, the part of the brain that normally lights up when we perceive something as human, did not
in fact light up. Instead these images prompted the parts of the brain that register disgust to light up
(Harris). Not only are homeless people viewed as subhuman, they are also met with disgust at their
condition. Harris clarifies that this reaction is not hard-wired, but it is most definitely prevalent. This
does not mean that Ruth Anne is a bad person because she responds to homeless people with disgust, but
it does mean that she is less well equipped to actively listen than people who are both conscious that they
have pre-conceived notions, and strive to be aware of the humanity of homeless people.
Harris argues that this type of consciousness does not exist for many people because it is hard to
face the reality of deep inequality that exists within our society. Our culture is based on an idea of
personal freedom and the ability to make a good life for yourself if you work hard enough. It is important
to let go of this illusion to see the reality of structural oppression. It is also vital to address this issue so
that the homeless do not internalize the messages of worthlessness and disgust that are aimed at them
daily (Harris). Harris quotes a colleague as saying once you define someone as less than human, you can
do whatever you want to them. Similarly, once you see yourself as the object of disgust, you begin to
think of yourself as deserving of that disgust. The way through all this dehumanizing is paved with
stories and active listening. Harris very powerfully points out that the rhetoric of disgust to which we
are constantly exposed, does not hold up against human connection.

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When Bonnie and I met Felix and actively listened to his story, all three of us were a small part of
tearing down this rhetoric of disgust. On that day we did not even begin to change the societal
structures that made Felix and his five children homeless, and this is work that has a long way to go.
However, the first step on that path to change is to acknowledge the common humanity of everyone
involved. When stories are heard, and hardship is met with authentic empathy, the world changes, even if
incrementally, for the better.

Works Cited
Harris, Timothy. "The Politics of Disgust." 20 June 2012. Address.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. "On Being a Good Neighbor." Letter. N.d. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 31-38. Print.
Stivers, Laura A. Disrupting Homelessness: Alternative Christian Approaches. Minneapolis: Fortress,
2011. Print.
Paper Grade A
Yoshie,
Wonderful essay! Good connection of experiences at St. Vincents with the readings. Also clear
description of readings for an unfamiliar reader. Last of all, I liked how you reflected on your own
learning.