This paper, based on a mental health consultation project in an inner city elementary school, examines the process of consultation in a biracial organization and advances four propositions about the interactions: (1) that there are black-white differences in orientation to the consultant-consultee relationship; (2) that these differences are along the dimension of interpersonal vs. instrumental competence; (3) that these differences have significant implications for the effectiveness of the consultation process itself; and (4) that ethnic differences in orientation to consultation can be generalized to other interpersonal transactions between blacks and whites. Some of the specific problems associated with consultation in biracial situations are discussed, such as mutual stereotyping, mutual mistrust, and problems of interpreting communication and social behavior. "Critical incidents" are presented to illustrate these problems. Finally, a model of interpersonal orientation-interpersonal competence in mental health consultation is proposed. This model is an effort to conceptualize both the stages and the themes involved in the consultation process. (Author)