I realize that the term "whiteness" has a place in some academic settings but please for the love of God keep it out of diversity training and elementary, middle, or high school curriculums and keep it off social media. There will maybe be some people familiar with the term, some people might be charitable and try and infer what the term means from context clues, but the wide majority will be instantly turned off, confused, and offended. This is in part because the term sounds like it is racist against white people, partly because most people don't know what it means, but mostly because white people are very fragile when it comes to talking about racism and power.
I think this definition of "whiteness" from this piece of literature sums up what the term means: "Whiteness is a hegemonic system that perpetuates certain dominant ideologies about who receives power and privilege. Whiteness maintains itself in cultures through power dynamics within language, religion, class, race relations, sexual orientation, etc." So, unless you are already discussing the subject within a relevant academic setting, with people who are familiar with the term, or with people who are curious about the term, please don't use it. At best it'll be confusing and at worst it'll be an immediate turn-off for white people who will then consider the left racist against whites. Rather than saying "whiteness," explain what you mean. You need to dumb down the language and realize who you are talking to rather than just using these academic terms all over the place to try and feel smarter, better, and morally superior to others. A scientist wouldn't use terms like combustion when talking to children, they'd explain what they're talking about in simple terms by saying something like "the process of burning something" so their audience can understand it better and not tune them out. Do the same.
I think most white people get so defensive when the topic of racism comes up because deep down they know that it’s bad and know that white people did a lot of it in America but they’re too embarrassed or fragile to actually address it so they must pivot or deflect. Kinda like how if you had a family member do really bad stuff - like RJ Stern from season 5 of Last Chance U whose grandfather was a convicted pedophile and did some pretty nasty stuff - you'll get embarrassed and what to change the subject or avoid talking about it and acknowledging it. Or you could look at it like when someone brings up something bad or cringe you did in the past, deep down you know it was bad, but are too embarrassed to discuss it even much later and do whatever you can to change the topic.
Using "whiteness" to critique things and not elaborating is also just very lazy. Conservatives do the same thing with terms like "woke" or "virtue signaling" and act as if just calling something that name is a legitimate criticism. Furthermore, white people are not used to receiving criticism, and criticism that seems to be solely about them being white will immediately turn them off of what you're saying. You gotta use more inclusive language when talking about this stuff (ironic considering conservatives hate that kinda stuff) and kinda dumb it down.
