Perhaps? That's exactly what it is. That pesky little thing called "enslavement because of the color of our skin" is the glue that held us together and propelled us forward as a "people" with a shared culture, IMHO. And, the fact that so many Europeans immigrated here from so many different countries and cultures and then "became white," -- might just have something to do with the fact that culture by white people is hardly identifiable as a single 'culture'.