I thought the distinction was: "white papers" are not necessarily peer-reviewed by an academic journal's editors; white papers tend to be internally-made documents within an organization, edited by that organization's members, for the purpose of knowledge/information.

Academic papers as a whole can include both "white papers" and "peer-reviewed journal articles" aka the "papers" that many think of. I would surely put a "white paper" onto my resume if I thought it was a great piece of work.