Maybe my memory is faulty, but I read somewhere that the white man, was willing to stand and told the bus driver that he had no problems doing so. It was the busdriver who insisted Rosa Parks had to stand.
If so, I don't think the man in question deserves the scorn Pitts (who's usually better than this) is pouring on him.
A quick google search confirmed that the mysterious 'white man' didn't demand a seat, but the bus driver insisted the black people move. Not only that, but Parks was bailed out by the Durr's, a white couple.
"... the white man was willing to stand and told the bus driver that he had no problems doing so."
Under the Montgomery city ordinance, the standing white man was *required* to take the seat that Parks was asked to vacate, when ordered to do so by the bus driver. This same ordinance also *required* the bus driver to demand that Parks vacate her seat. So, the racist ordinance had the potential to make the white passenger a criminal, for a simple act of courtesy to a (black) woman *or* to make the bus driver a criminal for not making Parks move and the white passenger take her seat.