> Yes for various periods of time there were various efforts to construct such an identity, to serve various ends of the people doing so.
No, I'm not talking about some vague various-periods-of-time generality.
Every concrete identity current in American society, including “White”, is a product of White supremacy, and currently reflects identification with shared experience under White supremacy, which, for those the White, is being on the side of prejudiced institutional power.
Whiteness as a racial identity (not as an ancestry, not as description of skin color, but as a racial identity) is, entirely, about prej5 plus institutional power.