Respect for Others and the Concept of Listening

I think one important idea for interpersonal interaction is having the proper respect for people's understanding of themselves. While it's true that many people are uncertain or unaware of what they want and need, it does not follow that another's own certainty over what they as an individual want or need has any implications for their knowledge of the wants and needs of other individuals. Even in the case where they have domain-specific knowledge (eg a psychologist or even a doctor for physical health) the other person may not know, they need to know how to get information from the other person on what they know about themselves in order to best apply that knowledge. And I think this concept can be extended to issues of social justice as well, but I think there are some insidious ways this overriding of other people's wants and needs for our own creeps in for even the most well-intentioned.

One of these ways is in the context of 'listening' to oppressed people, which I think is a very necessary component of social justice which is often applied in absolutely the wrong way. I think listening is often viewed as a passive activity akin to hearing.

Listening and hearing are not the same.  You can hear someone without listening to them, as when your mind wanders off during a lecture or you read a technical document and have no idea what it's trying to say. Listening must be an active activity where you attempt to understand what the other person is saying and integrate it into your worldview. This may or may not involve direct interaction with the person themselves. But even if asking the person themselves is not possible or advisable, you can still think about what they've said, read what other people have to say about that perspective and talk about it with other people. The latter two parts should be done with the goal of getting multiple perspectives and not only ones you already agree with. The end result of listening does not necessarily have to be agreement, but it should result in a greater understanding of the other person's perspective.