This study uncovers the role skin colour plays in the identification process of Mexican and Puerto Rican youth in predominantly African American schools in Detroit. The author captures through intensive interviews the racial/ethnic identification process of these students which includes how their identification shifts (or not) in relation to how they perceive others identify them based on their skin colour. The students experienced others (primarily African American students and teachers) situating them into three distinct racial and ethnic categories which resonated in different experiences of treatment, discrimination and privilege and subsequently shaped their perceptions of opportunity and academic orientation. This study is the first of its kind to introduce the complexity of skin colour in race/ethnicity among Latinos and offers substantive points of discussion regarding the applicability of previous explanations of why minority groups differ in their academic variability. Furthermore, this study complicates discussions of social identification by implicating the relationship between skin colour and social context as shaping how we view ourselves and how others view us.