One use of in-depth interviews is to determine the respondents' attitudes, beliefs, and/or opinions on controversial issues. Race is one such controversial issue. When an interviewer asks questions about racial issues (or controversial issues more generally), a fundamental organization comes into play: (1) asking about a racial issue reflects and implicates a position or perspective with respect to the controversy; and (2) an interviewer can construct a query that aligns to a greater or lesser extent with a position or perspective, or he or she may work to avoid aligning with a particular position or perspective.

When an interviewer asks about a particular racial matter, the interviewee might presume that the interviewer endorses the perspective implicated by the query. Likewise, when an interviewee responds to a query about a particular racial matter, the interviewer might presume that the interviewee endorses a perspective implicated by the response. The possibility of the interactants' making inferences about each other's perspective presents certain problems for both the interviewer and interviewee in terms of how to formulate and interpret queries and responses.